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Unreinforced masonry (URM) structures represent a large share of the dwelling stock, traditional industrial buildings and historical heritage of mankind. Most of the URM structures have been built with little or, in some cases, no seismic provisions. In order to overcome this drawback, the application of external reinforcement layers, especially those made of composites, to improve the structural behavior of masonry structures has been a research focus area during the past decades. The aim of this paper is to propose and assess a simplified and accepted Finite Element (FE) modelling strategy to simulate the diagonal compression test of the URM walls strengthened with glass fibre meshes embedded in a cement-based mortar. In the case of masonry walls strengthened with composites reinforced with glass fibre meshes, both the masonry material model and the modelling and the meshing of the composite strengthening system need to be addressed by taking into account the complex phenomena that characterise the bond interaction between the glass fibre mesh, mortar and the masonry support. The FE analyses were developed with reference to the experimental tests available in the current literature and, according to the preliminary outcomes of an experimental program which is currently under development at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Building Services, Iasi.

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The aim to retrofit and preserve the monumental stone masonry buildings due to their historical and cultural relevance is accompanied by the necessity of understanding the behaviour of the unstrengthen structure, as well as its behaviour after the strengthening systems are applied. There is scarce information related to the mechanical properties of stone masonry buildings and even less regarding the assessment of these characteristics in numerical models. Therefore, simulating the force displacement variation and the stress-strain distribution of stone masonry loaded in diagonal compression is a challenging issue. This work contributes to this topic by developing two detailed micro non-linear 3D models. The first model was designed for an unreinforced masonry (URM) wall and the second one was developed for a strengthened URM wall. For this purpose, a commonly used seismic strengthening system, referred to as reinforced plastering mortar (RPM) or textile reinforced mortar (TRM) was applied on the wall. All the components of the TRM strengthening system and the interfaces between the system and the stone masonry wall were considered in the numerical model. The structural responses of the models were analysed and compared and the TRM system effectiveness in increasing the in-plane load resistance and ductility of stone masonry walls was highlighted.