Strengthening of Stone and Brick Masonry Buildings

Today, the scientific community has recognised that the structural safety aspects of existing masonry buildings cannot be treated according to standard procedures that are fit for new constructions. Hence, new approaches for assessing the actual structural performance of existing masonry buildings and developing more appropriate methods and criteria for their repair and strengthening are in progress. The basic idea is that the usual design approaches naturally imply a certain level of “over-design”, and this can lead to unacceptable solutions, under the point of view of costs and conservation, when dealing with existing structures. For these reasons, attention must be paid to the appropriate selection and design of materials and technologies for intervention, taking into account the possibilities offered by traditional solutions and their possible combinations with innovative ones. As existing buildings are usually designed for vertical actions, the “seismic conditions” have the most awkward implications. Indeed, the earthquake actions refer to the very extreme structural resources, i.e. those connected with resistant mechanisms that are normally neglected, and are very difficult to be implemented into structural models. In this chapter, after a general introduction on the characteristics and peculiarities of existing buildings made of stone and clay brick masonry, where we will take into account mainly ordinary buildings, and after some general considerations on the more suitable approaches and criteria for the design of interventions, the most relevant techniques used to strengthen this kind of buildings will be presented.