72789 - Structural Strengthening & Rehabilitation

Learning outcomes

In the course, the student will know the techniques for the strengthening and rehabilitation of civil structures (buildings and infrastructures), made of reinforced concrete, steel or masonry. The techniques for strengthening in seismic areas will be also studied.

Course contents

The course topics are listed below:

Analysis of masonry historical and monumental buildings:

• Mechanical properties of masonry constituents: bricks, stones, mortar, natural materials,
• Mechanics of masonry composite materials: compressive, tensile and shear strength,
• Analysis of masonry elements as no tension materials,
• The masonry pier, the lintel beam, the masonry wall,
• Analytical methods for the calculation of the masonry structure,
• Limit analysis method for the out of plane overturning of the masonry wall,
• Numerical analysis of masonry structures: construction of pushover curves,
• Numerical models: plate elements, frame elements and reticular analogy,
• Vaulted structures: groin, barrel and dome vaults,
• Timber beams and timber frames for floors and roofs,
• NDT investigation of masonry and timber materials,
• Examples of damaged buildings of L’Aquila city.

Use of innovative composite materials for special structural problems:

• Fiber reinforced composite materials (FRP),
• Repair and strengthening of R/C structures with FRP,
• Repair and seismic enhancement of timber and masonry structures,
• Innovative constructions with advanced polymer composites,
• Examples of damaged masonry buildings repair and strengthening.

  Fire Engineering:

• The fire event: causes, evolution and thermo – mechanical effects,
• Effect of high temperature on steel, concrete and timber,
• Design of steel structures with passive fire resistance,
• Theromechanical damage of concrete,
• NDT investigation of damaged concrete,
• Repair of fire damaged concrete structures,
• Examples of industrial buildings repair case histories.

Structural Health Monitoring:

• Dynamic investigation of bridge and building structures,
• damage detection through monitoring,
• frequency decay of damaged structures,
• corrosion of concrete reinforcement,
• remaining life of damaged structures,
• SHM of masonry briddges.

Teaching methods

The lectures are given frontal in the classroom. The discussed topics are presented both by direct explanation and calculation on the blackboard, or by means of slide presentations.

The presented material is available in the electronic repository of the course

In Academic year 2024-2025 the course will include 16 hours (6 lectures) given by prof. Tony Nanni fron sabbatical leave from University of Miami (FL, USA). He will present the most recent activity on the standards for rehabilitation of reinforced concrete with Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP), and concrete reinforcement with rebars made with G-FRP.

The material of the course includes even some homeworks that students can work out on a personal basis with the aim of exploration of the design philosophies presented in the course.

Assessment methods

The assessment will be carried out with a personal appointment devoted to evaluate the degree of preparation of the candidate. The discussion will start with the presentation of the worked out homeworks followed by a discussion of the used theories and the possible design alternatives. The main preparation feature is the capacity in dealing with design problems of structural strengthening.

The appointment is open all over the year, is requested with an e-mail of the student, and will be fixed in the interval of a week. Normally exams take place on wednesday and thursday morning, apart of the holydays.

In case of insufficient preparaton the student is asked to repeat the exam at least 15 days later.

Teaching tools

The material useful for the course is fully dowlodable fron the virtuale site, including the slide presentation in PDF format.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Benedetti

See the website of Antonio Nanni