Experimental Tests on Masonry Structures Provided with Shape Memory Alloy Antiseismic Devices

Within the framework of the European Commission-funded ISTECH Project, a series of shaking table tests on brick masonry wall mock-ups has been carried out, simulating a portion of a Cultural Heritage Structure. The aim has been to evaluate the benefits induced by the application of superelastic Shape Memory Alloy Devices, an innovative technique for masonry buildings rehabilitation. In fact said structures are greatly vulnerable to earthquake ground motion and traditional interventions are sometimes inadequate and often too invasive. Numerical analyses in support of these tests were also performed. The experimental campaign showed that the new tying technique using Shape Memory Alloy Devices can be highly effective to prevent the out-of-plane collapse, due to dynamic forces acting orthogonally, of peripheral masonry walls, e.g. church faÁades, poorly connected at floor level.