CAVALAGLI, NICOLA1; CLUNI, FEDERICO2; GUSELLA, VITTORIO3

1) Assistant professor, University of Perugia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, nicola.cavalagli@unipg.it

2) Assistant professor, University of Perugia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, federico.cluni@unipg.it

The confined masonry constructions combine the well-known building practice of masonry with the ductility characteristics of the reinforced concrete frames. At University of Perugia a research program has been carried out to investigate the increase in ductility of masonry walls obtained by means of confined masonry techniques. At first a comparison between plain and confined masonry walls subjected to shear load applied at the top has been achieved by means of experimental tests. Thereafter a Finite Element numerical model, able to represent the experimental data, has been developed. Eventually, the numerical results are compared with some simple formulas recently proposed in codes and literature to express the relationships between the lateral strength of the confined masonry wall and the wall features, in order to provide the main mechanical characteristics to be used in engineering programs.

Keywords: Confined masonry, Experimental tests on masonry walls, Numerical modelling of masonry walls