Experimental and Numerical Analysis of FRCM Strengthened Parabolic Tuff Barrel Vault

Abstract

This work focuses on an experimental and numerical study of a tuff barrel vault first damaged by differential vertical settlements of the abutments without rotations, then reinforced with a FRCM system composed by a fiber-reinforced mortar embedding a basalt fiber net, and finally subjected to a concentrated load on a generatrix (still ongoing). The geometry of the vault (polycentric near parabolic shape) and the masonry material (Apulian tuff) have been chosen in order to be representative of some masonry vaults common in rural constructions of Apulia region; also, a load representative of the infill weight has been applied during all the experimental tests. In parallel to the experiments, numerical simulations by a heterogeneous FE Abaqus model calibrated on the experimentally determined mechanical properties of materials have been performed. This model aims at reproducing the settlement phase and to accurately predict the load bearing capacity of the reinforced structure. To this aim, Concrete Damage Plasticity model has been used for modeling mortar joints and cementitious matrix, whereas tuff bricks have been assumed linearly elastic; finally, the basalt fiber net used in the FRCM reinforced has been described by suitable equivalent elasto-damaging trusses.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a FRCM Reinforced Parabolic Tuff Barrel Vault

“…The two supports of the vault are made by steel beams: one support is fixed, while the other can be moved by a hydraulic jack, allowing for controlled vertical displacements of one of the abutments of the vault. Two additional steel beams placed on the top lateral shoulders of the vault give further constraints, avoiding rigid rotations of the whole structure [7,8]. The FRCM reinforcement consisted in a basalt fiber mesh (6 mm x 6 mm) embedded in a cement mortar.…”

“…At the same time, also the slipping between the matrix and the fibers is not considered here. The geometrical model has been implemented on the deformed configuration obtained by the analysis reproducing the settlement phase and provided in [8]. Again, following the experimental procedure, the filling made of sandbags and the steel beams located at the spandrels are modeled directly as distributed and concentrated loads.…”

“…The study of the structural behavior FRCM reinforced masonry construction is even now an open research issue, especially in the case of curved structures like arches, vaults and domes. Indeed, in the literature there are still too little numerical (see, e.g., [3]) and experimental papers [4][5][6][7][8][9] on this subject.…”

“…The experiment, performed on a full-scale vault, required a quite complex experimental setup ad hoc designed [7,8]. In both tests, the masonry vault was continuously monitored through of several sensors placed in appropriate points of the intrados and extrados of the structure.…”

An Automatic and Fast Procedure for the Numerical Analysis of Curved Masonry Structures

“…Several approaches have been developed in literature ranging from methodologies enable to effectively combine ancient and current methods as kinematic limit analyses [2] to approaches that allow a full non-linear analysis. This latter can be faced with both macro-modeling [3] and micro-modeling [4]. The first case leads to an easy numerical implementation simulating the material as a continuum, but the choice of a suitable constitutive model may result cumbersome.…”