UNIFIED SEISMIC-ENERGY RETROFITTING OF A RC-BUILDING BY MEANS OF NEW INORGANIC MORTAR COMPOSITE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Climate changes and natural disasters are two alarming phenomena also in the field of civil engineering. In addition, existing buildings are very dated all around Europe; thus, a deep renovation program needs to be soon exploited following a holistic perspective. In this scenario, the use of inorganic mortar composites (IMCs) is a promising solution for both structural strengthening and thermal insulation. Among the ICM systems, the CRM (Composite Reinforced Mortar) one has been considered in this paper, made by a FRP (Fibres Reinforced Polymer) grid, with high strength to weight ratio, embedded into an inorganic matrix having considerable thickness (>30 mm). This system is a kind of reinforced plaster, traditionally made by using a steel grid, commonly considered effective for structural retrofitting; at the same time, the utilized mortar can be insulating-oriented when exhibiting sufficient low thermal conductivity. At this scope, a new CRM-system was recently proved to be both mechanical and thermal performant. The coupling of an alkali resistant (AR) glass grid with a geopolymeric matrix (resulted from the combination of fly-ash and expanded glass aggregates being alkali-activated) was found able to improve the shear strength and the thermal resistance of un-reinforced clay-brick-based masonry wall. Accordingly, the present paper is focused to a case study for the renovation-design of an existing reinforced concrete framed building. Thus, a I-shape structure, having relevant thermal dispersion façade while characterized by a critical structural/seismic configuration, was retrofitted solely with the mentioned new IMC. The summary of the numerical simulations of the ante- and the post-opera behaviours are herein reported; outcomes are promising evidencing that the unified proposed solution could improve both the seismic and energy performances.