Parametric study on the seismic behavior of masonry vaults strengthened with composite reinforced mortar.

The reduction of the seismic vulnerability of historic masonry vaults is an extremely current issue. A compatible strengthening technique consists in the application, at the vaults extrados or intrados, of a Glass Fiber Reinforced Mortar (GFRM) made of composite meshes embedded in a 30 mm thick mortar coating and anchored to the masonry vault. Both meshes and connectors are made of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP). Recently, the authors performed some experimental tests on full scale solid brick masonry barrel vaults, to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the technique, and developed a simplified FE numerical model able to reproduce the experimental behavior of the tested samples. In the paper, the FE numerical model was adopted to perform a parametric study aimed to evaluate the influence, on the vaults resistance and displacement capacities, of the masonry, mortar coating and GFRP mesh geometrical and mechanical characteristics and of the skewbacks asset.