Mechanical behaviour of brick masonry arches strengthened by GFRP sheet and CFRP plates

This paper aims to comparise and illustrate the behaviour of two different FRP intradossal applications made of sheets or pultruded elements, in order to show all those situations that can compromise these upgrading works, leading to local collapse mechanism, which correspond to the debonding of FRP reinforcement from the substrate. In order to avoid such problems the use of CFRP pultruded plates rather than strips or sheets is analyzed and illustrated. The paper presents preliminary results of experimental research on solid brick masonry arches strengthened at their intrados with GFRP sheets or CFRP pultruded plates. The results have pointed out the enhancement in capacity of the strengthened arches and the influence on the ultimate strength and failure mechanism of the different types of FRP (sheets and plates) reinforcements applied at arch intrados.