ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an experimental campaign on masonry panels strengthened by using fiber reinforced composite materials. Single-leaf masonry walls were reinforced by means of Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) or Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) composites with different kinds of fibers and different reinforcement layouts. FRP sheets reinforcements were glued on samples by means of a two-component epoxy resin, characterized by tensile strength of 35 MPa and elastic modulus of 2.5 GPa. The reinforcement layout of the panels strengthened by using FRP composites consisted in placing unidirectional carbon fibers sheets along the several main diagonals of the samples. For both FRP and FRCM composites, the reinforcements were applied symmetrically on both sides of the panels, with mechanical anchors in the corners, fixed over a square grid, providing inplane and transversal connection; anchors were made of passing through rolled sheet subsequently impregnated. In case of FRCM reinforcement, the observed delamination occurred inside the matrix of the composite material itself.
