Review of testing, assessment, and design methods on post-installed bonded fasteners into masonry under seismic action

Metal injection fasteners have been extensively used in strengthening or retrofitting existing masonry structures as well as in new structures. Until a few years ago, a unified test, assessment, and design framework for metal injection fasteners into masonry under seismic actions was non-existent in Europe. The existing test, assessment, and design methods in the European Assessment Document (EAD) and Technical Reports (TR) were applied only to anchors subjected to static or quasi-static actions. With the introduction of the amended and updated versions of the EAD and TR in 2022, a new test, assessment, and design framework was introduced for seismic design of masonry fixings. The first part of this paper investigates several research campaigns that have been carried out on mason-ry and metal injection fasteners into masonry under seismic actions. The second part describes and discusses the test procedures, assessment criteria, and design methods introduced in the new frame-work. Different approaches between the superseded and amended versions of the EAD, assumptions introduced in the amended version of the EAD, and reductions introduced in the design method are reviewed. The paper highlights the strengths, criticizes the questionable assumptions, lack of consideration of several aspects of the real situation, and limitations of the current framework. The limitation of anchor numbers in a connection, the use of the same group factors for static and seismic design, and the as-sumption of the knowledge of the position of the main diagonal in masonry walls by the designers are emphasized.