The emerging need to upgrade and protect traditional masonry buildings both in terms of structural safety and thermal efficiency, highlighted also by current EU and national legislation, was addressed in this Fellowship by exploring the seismic retrofit by means of TRM jacketing combined with thermal insulation materials (Fig. 1). To allow for a wider investigation, numerical models were developed (Fig. 3), which assess the performance of this integrated retrofitting concept at different EU cities and showed that the hybrid system can highly benefit cities especially with a high seismic hazard (Fig. 4).
Specifically, a new implicit model to simulate the mechanical behaviour of TRM-strengthened walls has been developed which includes an empirical rule for the debonding of the textile and a homogenisation model for masonry. The homogenisation model encompasses the gradient elasticity theory to account for the internal microstructure of masonry (Fig. 2). The debonding relationship has been based on the fib model code and adapted accordingly for the interface of textiles in mortar. Using this implicit simulation with the debonding relationship and the homogenisation model, a parametric analysis has been carried out applying a range of textile strength. The analysis has shown that TRM jackets can effectively enhance the out-of-plane capacity of walls. Even when low capacity fibres are used, a considerable out-of-plane increase of the capacity is recorded which becomes much higher for higher strength fibres. The effect of a combined retrofit across Europe together with an increased renovation rate has been shown not only to meet the emission reduction targets but also to be economically feasible, as reduced losses from energy costs and seismic damage make the renovation strategies more viable with short payback periods in high seismicity areas. A scale for combined savings has been proposed showing the advantageous savings of the combined retrofit (Fig. 4).
The EU policy for energy efficiency, sustainability and safeguarding of cultural heritage is benefitted by the project as this can be a useful tool for their implementation efficiently and affordably. The scientific results, methods and perspectives of SPEctRUM have been communicated to a wide audience to raise public awareness and understanding of the benefits of the proposed retrofit technique in renovating the building stock. Various groups have been targeted: (i) the scientific community, (ii) the construction industry and professional organizations, (iii) European fora, and (iv) young scientists, university students, and school pupils. Three main disseminating activities have been used: 1) Oral dissemination: 2 presentations in international conferences (a. EURODYN 2020, XI International Conference on Structural Dynamics, b. The Sixteenth International Conference on Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering Computing, Italy, 2019), 3 presentations to universities across Europe giving seminars (the University of Thessaloniki, the University of Thessaly, the University College London), 1 lecture to an engineer association (Corfu, Greece), 1 school visit (European school of Varese, Italy). 2) Written dissemination: 2 peer-reviewed conference articles as mentioned above (10.47964/1120.9209.20157 10.13140/RG.2.2.23198.36167) 3 journal papers: 2 in Engineering Structure (one under review and
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2020.110311(opens in new window)) and Energy and Buildings (
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110024(opens in new window)) 1 Technical Report published by JRC (under review). All scientific publications are published in open access allowing the widest dissemination. 3) Multimedia dissemination: A website updated regularly was launched (
https://spectrummcproject.webnode.gr/(opens in new window)) and a blog on the ‘JRC Connection’ site. Moreover, social media and portals such as LinkedIn and Research Gate were used for posting news and information about SPEctRUM.
