Masonry circular columns confined with glass and basalt fibers

The mechanical behaviour of masonry columns having a circular cross section, confined with glass and basalt FRP systems was studied in this paper. An extended experimental investigation is presented in order to show the results of axial compression tests on circular masonry columns built with natural calcareous blocks that may be commonly found in Italy and all over Europe in historical buildings. Totally twenty masonry columns were built, instrumented and tested. Different fibres were used including glass and basalt (sheets and grids), different strengthening schemes were applied for confinement of the columns, including complete jacketing and discontinuous FRP strips, different bonding agents were employed including epoxy resin and polymer/cement-based mortar. In four GFRP-confined columns the strengthening action was activated by the presence of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) filaments immersed in the FRP system. This novel technique is also presented in the paper