NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS OF STRENGTHENED MASONRY CROSS-SECTIONS WITH DIMENSIONLESS CLOSED FORM SOLUTION

In the last decades the strengthening of existing masonry buildings represents a primary topic for the recovery of the existing building stock. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to solve the non-linear behaviour of strengthened masonry rectangular cross-sections by the means of closed form equations and, therefore, iterative procedures are prevented. The equations are reported in a dimensionless form in order to offer generalizable results. Strengthening systems as FRP or FRCM are analysed assuming a linear behaviour. The analysis results are discussed by means of parametric investigations in terms of P-M domains and bending moment-curvature diagrams in order to analyse the effects of the strengthening systems on the masonry cross-section behaviour in terms of ductility and bending moment capacity. In addition, several constitutive relationships for the compressive behaviour of masonry are discussed to analyse their effects in terms of bending moment capacity and ductility. The proposed approach aims at simplifying the cross-section analysis process in complex algorithms where a large amount of cross-section evaluations are performed in order to reduce the analysis efforts without losing the accuracy of the results.