Cyclic shear-compression testing of brick masonry walls repaired and retrofitted with basalt textile reinforced mortar

This paper reports an experimental programme on masonry walls composed of handmade solid clay brick and hydraulic lime mortar. Reversed cyclic shear compression tests were carried out on the walls in three different configurations: unreinforced, repaired and retrofitted, and just retrofitted. Damaged walls were repaired and retrofitted with Basalt Textile Reinforced Mortar (B-TRM) and tested again to investigate the recovery of strength, stiffness and the improvement in drift capacity. The repair consisted in filling the open cracks and replacing the damaged bricks by following the so-called “scuci-cuci” technique. The just retrofitted configuration consisted of externally bonded B-TRM on undamaged walls. The B-TRM system comprised continuous bidirectional grids of basalt fibre embedded in hydraulic lime mortar on both surfaces of the walls. The experimental results showed the suitability of the proposed solutions for seismic retrofit and post-earthquake repair of existing masonry buildings. The research results highlighted the capacity of the proposed repair technique to reinforce damaged walls and the effectiveness of the investigated B-TRM system in increasing the resistance, the ductility, and the energy dissipation of unreinforced clay brick masonry. In addition, the results allowed a better understanding of the behaviour of masonry walls subjected to cyclic horizontal displacement in terms of failure mechanism and displacement capacities.