Shear capacity of masonry panels repaired with composite materials: Experimental and analytical investigations

Composite materials have been widely used to strengthen masonry structures or to repair those damaged by earthquakes. While the effect of composite materials applied on undamaged masonry walls is widely investigated, their effectiveness when used to repair damaged ones still needs further investigations. This paper deals with the shear capacity of masonry panels repaired with carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites. In particular, masonry undamaged panels were tested under diagonal load up to failure, repaired with composite materials, and tested again. The repair technique proved its effectiveness, since the shear strength of the repaired specimens was similar to that of the original ones. The shear capacity of the repaired panels was computed with the approach provided by the CNR DT200 Italian guidelines. Within this framework, the cohesion of the masonry material was neglected for the evaluation of the shear capacity of the repaired panels to take into account for the pre-existing damage. This approach provides a satisfactory agreement with the experimental results.