Cyclic damage analysis by acoustic emission in reinforced historical masonry

A crucial aspect in damage evaluation of historical masonry buildings is the analysis of long-term behaviour. The analysis of creep and environmental effects has a great influence on safety assessment of monumental buildings in planning of strengthening works. By means of Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring, an experimental analysis on a set of masonry walls under constant and variable amplitude loading has been carried out. The AE monitoring has been applied to the masonry walls tested in diagonal compressive conditions. The specimens were reinforced by Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) or by structural mortar (MR) in order to increase their shear stress capacity. These two different reinforcement techniques are evaluated using different test procedures. A set of specimens was subjected to static test in shear loading after a pre-damaging phase to simulate the effects of environmental actions and long term behaviour. In addition, in order to evaluate the creep behaviour, other masonry walls reinforced by both the strengthening techniques were led to failure through fatigue cycles without the pre-damaging phase.