A DISCRETE-MACRO-ELEMENT-MODEL FOR THE IN-PLANE ANALYSIS OF MASONRY STRUCTURES STRENGTHENED BY FRCMS

Recent earthquakes demonstrated the vulnerability of existing and historical masonry constructions. Many strengthening techniques for the seismic retrofitting of these structures have been introduced in the literature. Among these, FRCM strategies, based on the application of fibrereinforced composite materials on the masonry surface through inorganic mortar layers, has become rather popular due to their physic and mechanic compatibility with historical masonries, low invasiveness and capacity to improve both the in-plane and the out of plane masonry behaviour. In this paper, a simplified discrete model, working at the material macroscale, is proposed to simulate the in-plane behaviour of masonry panels strengthened by FRCM systems. The proposed modelling approach is based on the DMEM model, whose calibration is enhanced to encompass the properties of the externally bonded strengthening system. According to the proposed strategy, the masonry support and the FRCM layers are simulated by...