Experimental assessment of the out-of-plane resistance of masonry infill walls with basalt-fiber-reinforced thermal insulation

This study presents the results of an experimental campaign designed to investigate the out-of-plane resistance of masonry infill walls with thermal insulation strengthened by basalt-fibers. To this aim, three full-scale reinforced concrete frames were constructed and infilled with lightweight masonry units: one reference specimen without external nsulation and two speci-mens with thermal insulation strengthened by basalt-fibers. The same testing protocol was applied to all specimens. In the first stage, cyclic in-plane displacements were imposed to induce controlled damage in the infill panels. Subsequently, a monotonically increasing out-of-plane load was applied in order to assess the enhancement in load-bearing capacity provided by the reinforced in-sulation system. Results shows that the in-plane behaviour of the strengthened specimens is comparable to that of the reference frame. However, a significant improvement in out-of-plane resistance was observed for the specimens with thermal insulation strengthened by basalt fibers, confirming the beneficial contribution of the tested system under out-of-plane loading conditions.