Experimental assessment of the out-of-plane response of strengthened one-way spanning masonry infill walls

Experimental tests performed to characterize the out-of-plane response of unreinforced and reinforced one-way spanning masonry infills in Reinforced Concrete frames are presented. The performance of an as-built specimen is compared with that of two specimens strengthened with a Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) and with a Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP). The FRP is also used to repair the as-built specimen before a second test. The specimen strengthened with the FRCM nearly tripled its strength, while the specimen strengthened with the FRP nearly doubled it. An increment around 65% of the out-of-plane strength was observed for the repaired specimen. A preliminary discussion on the strength mechanism of the specimens is presented. The as-built specimen resisted out-of-plane loads due to arching effect, strengthened specimens exhibited a combined flexural and arching mechanism. A mechanical-based model proposed in the literature is applied to check its suitability for predicting the out-of-plane response of strengthened masonry infills.