Curved masonry supports strengthened with TRM materials: Advanced Fe modelling

The article compares two numerical approaches with different levels of details used to simulate curved masonry supports subjected to single lap shear tests. The masonry pillars were strengthened on the extrados and on the intrados with TRM materials comprising a 100 mm wide PBO textile embedded into 10 mm thick mortar layer. The numerical analyses were carried out using two approaches: a heterogeneous micro modelling FE approach and a spring model approach. The first modelling strategy was developed using the commercial software Abaqus and it involved the separate modelling of the constituent materials (i.e., bricks and mortar joints) as well as the simulation of the PBO textile and mortar matrix. The second approach was specifically developed to analyze curved supports and it comprised the adoption of equivalent normal and shear springs used to model the components of specimens (support, matrix and reinforcement) and, moreover, the interface between reinforcement and matrix. It is worth mentioning that this numerical investigation is part of an ongoing experimental and numerical work focused on analyzing the effect of curved brittle supports on the adherence properties of innovative strengthening materials (i.e., FRPs) and herein extended to the adoption of TRM composites. In absence of a comprehensive experimental characterization of the TRM constituent materials, the mechanical properties of the textile and mortar matrix were deduced from available data provided by the manufacturer. The numerical results are herein presented and critically compared in terms of global force-displacement curves and damage maps obtained at the end of the simulations.