A plate asymptotic model for unreinforced and FRP reinforced masonry walls

This work proposes a study for unreinforced and FRP reinforced masonry walls [1] subject to in plane and out of plane actions in the elastic range. Masonry has been identified with a standard elastic continuum by means of a homogenisation method in several perturbative parameters. The model that has been developed allows, in the flexural case, the identification of the 3D solid with a 2D Love - Kirchhoff’s plate, in which the anisotropy is connected with the arrangement of blocks and with the FRP disposition. The obtained results give the values of homogenised plate constants -membranal and bending moduli [2],[3],[4]. An extensive numerical analysis has been carried out to investigate the capacity of the homogenisation method - by comparison with other models existing in the literature [5],[9]- to grasp the effect of the sizes of blocks, the thickness of the mortar joints with respect to the dimensions of the blocks, the ratio between the elastic moduli of the blocks. These analyses have been performed also for the study of the masonry reinforced with FRP’s sheets. As it is well known, masonry and FRP may be identified with continuous orthotropic materials; in this case the influence of the disposition of orthotropic principal directions of FRP have been investigated.