A review of the use of stainless steel for masonry repair and reinforcement

This paper focuses on the recent evolution of the utilization of stainless steel profiles for repair and reinforcement of historic masonry structures, which are often subjected to dynamic in-plane shear and out-of-plane loading when struck by an earthquake. The conservation of the building heritage affords many challenges to structural engineers and architects. Increase in static and dynamic load-capacity, compatibility of repair materials with historic masonry material, reversibility of reinforcement interventions, limited increase in mass, preservation of the fair-faced aspect of the masonry are examples of common issues showing the complexity of the design problem. The use of stainless steel alloys in structural engineering applications is not a new idea, but civil engineers have a limited knowledge of these alloys. This paper sets out the development of the retrofitting methods based on the use of stainless profiles and presents a review of experimental studies carried out into the mechanical behaviour of masonry structures reinforced using stainless steel. A number of cases are considered and discussed (shear reinforcement of wall panels, crack stitching, transversal connection of multi-leaf walls and retrofit of towers and chimneys) and conclusions are drawn from the reported studies.