RAMOS, SARA1; MARTÍNEZ, ISABEL2

1) S.Ramos, Spanish National Research Council, Eduardo Torroja Institute, sara.ramos@ietcc.csic.es

2) I. Martínez, Spanish National Research Council, Eduardo Torroja Institute ,isabelms@ietcc.csic.es

Although brick has been used since the earliest times, knowledge about the behaviour of masonry is still incomplete today. The vulnerability of old historical masonry buildings, both by the degradation of the materials themselves and by the different kinds of damage caused by agents outside the material itself, make it necessary to strengthen adequately these elements in order to achieve an improvement in the capacity, in terms of strength and ductility.

The election of the reinforcement system is a problem today, as the different typologies must be analysed to see which is most appropriate in each case and which generates the least problems over time. This paper gives an overview of masonry reinforcements focusing on brick walls with metal elements and the issues that can occur in the structure over time due to corrosion of the metallic elements of the masonry.

The experimental work is carried out pioneering a study of the durability of these reinforcements through evaluation by non-destructive electrochemical techniques. The results presented here are preliminary results obtained in test tubes, but the study being undertaken is much broader, the ultimate goal being to evaluate the behaviour against the corrosion of these reinforcements in real structures to make a prediction of future behaviour.

Keywords: reinforcement masonry, historical buildings, electrochemical techniques, material characterisation.