Shear Behaviour of Wall Panels Reinforced Using Mechanically Attached Stainless Strips

It is well known that architectural heritage masonry buildings react poorly when struck by an earthquake. In order to comply with new seismic standards, new retrofitting methods and materials have been studied and tested in the last decade. This article describes the results of a series of shear tests carried out in the laboratory on wall panels in order to study the effectiveness of a new retrofitting method, using fully-reversible, non-invasive, stainless steel strips mechanically attached to the wall surface using high-strength steel bolts. The wall panels were assembled in the laboratory and were made of stone or brick work. Tests were conducted on both reinforced and unreinforced panels, in order to gain information under incremental loading on walls subject under lateral loading, on wall ductility and shear stiffness. Results demonstrated that it is possible to increase the mechanical behaviour of wall panels using the proposed retrofitting method.