MONNI FRANCESCO1, QUAGLIARINI ENRICO2, LENCI STEFANO3

1 Ph.D; A.h.R.T.E. s.r.l. – Architectural heritage Restoration through Tailored Engineering s.r.l., Spin Off of Polytechnic University of Marche, c/o Dept. of Civil and Building Engineering and Architecture, Ancona, Italy, ahrte@univpm.it;

2 Assistant Professor, Polytechnic University of Marche, Dept. of Civil and Building Engineering and Architecture, Ancona, Italy, e.quagliarini@univpm.it;

3 Full Professor, Polytechnic University of Marche, Dept. of Civil and Building Engineering and Architecture, Ancona, Italy, s.lenci@univpm.it

Strengthening bearing masonry walls giving them a transversal monolithic behaviour is one of the most important retrofitting action to improve seismic performance of existing masonry buildings, especially when these are damaged or made without cognisance of earthquake loads. Dry stitching masonry using basalt fibre rope is an innovative technique, able to connect masonry elements and to convey monolithic behaviour. Continuous basalt fibres are obtained by melting basalt, they are fire and chemical resistant and present a high compatibility with masonry (“stone stitches stone”). The technique has been already tested and proved to be effective for improving the behaviour against “in-plane” actions (shear and compression). The results obtained from an experimental campaign using masonry panels subject to “out-of-plane” loads, presented in this paper, indicate the effectiveness of this dry retrofitting system (with no use of synthetic adhesive), increasing the out-of-plane performance of masonry wall specimens, and the full sustainability of it.

Keywords: Out of plane loads, dry strengthening techniques, basalt fibre, sustainable retrofitting