Unreinforced and TRM-Reinforced Masonry Building Subjected to Pseudodynamic Excitations: Numerical and Experimental Insights

This paper contains a numerical study based on tests carried out at the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) on a U-shaped unreinforced and Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM)-reinforced masonry structure subjected to horizontal loads. The masonry was composed of clay bricks with 10 mm thick mortar joints arranged in an English bond pattern. The prototype was tested by applying pseudodynamic displacement-driven cycles and varying cyclic amplitudes and frequencies in two different stages: (1) on the as-built structure and (2) after the application of the TRM material. A series of nonlinear numerical simulations were performed adopting the ABAQUS/Explicit version 6.14 finite-element (FE) software. The FE calibration was carried out using the results obtained during ambient vibration tests. Simulations were then used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed TRM strengthening technique in improving the behaviour of low-rise old masonry building subjected to horizontal loads.