Seismic retrofit of existing RC and masonry buildings using external aluminium alloy exoskeleton

This thesis is the result of the industrial PhD carried out in collaboration with Aliva S.r.l. company that develops customized solutions for ventilated facades. The ventilated facade is a multi-layer protective system for the building envelope where the light bearing structure is usually made of aluminium alloy for its property of lightness, durability, corrosion resistance, workability thanks to the extrusion process and eco-sustainability. The scope of this thesis is to investigate the use of aluminium alloys in application fields different from that of the ventilated facade. The use of aluminium alloys in structural engineering is a quite recent activity, because this family of materials is relatively new. Nowadays, after the several research carried out in order to characterize the design of aluminium alloys structures and the publication of Eurocode 9 Design of Aluminium Structures, there are many applications of aluminium alloys in structural engineering. However, there is still a lack of information about the ductility of this material and its use in seismic zones. In fact to date there is no seismic regulations for aluminium alloys applications, only recently in the project for the development of the next generation of structural Eurocodes, it was decided to introduce the aluminium alloys among the new emerging materials for anti-seismic structures. This thesis aims to make a contribution to the study of the possible use of aluminium alloys in seismic areas and intends to study if it can be a competitive solution in the seismic retrofit field. This study is part of the European research project Pro-GET-onE in which the Aliva company is involved together with the university of Bologna and other members. This thesis shows the study and the development of the design of an external structural frame, also called exoskeleton, made of aluminium alloys.