Retrofitting a full-scale two-story hollow clay block masonry building by Steel Fiber Reinforced Mortar coating

The use of mortar coating reinforced only with randomly diffused steel fibers represents an effective technique for seismic retrofitting of masonry buildings. The present work aims at proving the effectiveness of that technique by testing a full-scale two-story hollow clay block masonry building subjected to a quasi-static cyclic lateral loading. The experimental program includes two tests involving the same building. The first test performed on the building without coating is carried out to pre-damage masonry in order to simulate the effects of a seismic action significant for ultimate conditions. The second test is performed to assess the behavior of the pre-damaged building after retrofitting. The paper presents the main properties and details of both the test building and the proposed retrofitting technique. As the test on the retrofitted specimen is still ongoing, only the main results concerning the unstrengthened building are reported and discussed. To predict the response of the two experimental tests, 3D non-linear finite element simulations have been carried out and presented in the last section of the paper. The latter includes the comparison between the numerical prediction and the available experimental results.