Authors: Ana Isabel Marques, Paulo Candeias, João Gomes Ferreira, M.ª Rosário Veiga

Old buildings with structural masonry walls, which are part of the cities' built heritage, generally have a very low capacity to resist earthquakes. For these reasons, it is of utmost importance to develop effective seismic strengthening techniques, which do not compromise the intrinsic cultural value of old buildings. The use of reinforced render is a relatively simple application solution that can satisfy these requirements. This paper presents the experimental study on the tensile strength of different compositions of reinforced renders, namely with hydrated lime, hydraulic lime or cement mortars, and with different reinforcements, namely of steel mesh, fiberglass mesh and a natural fiber mesh. The results of diagonal compression tests on three elements of solid brick masonry wall - one plain and the other two with reinforced renders - are also presented. The results of these tests allow evaluating the effectiveness of reinforced renders in the increase of walls’ shear strength.

Ana Isabel Marques¹, Paulo Candeias², João Gomes Ferreira³, M.ª Rosário Veiga⁴
1,2,4 LNEC, Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil
3 CERIS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa