Optimizing strengthening interventions on historic masonry walls: an experimental study

Abstract Scotland’s historic environment is an essential part of the country’s cultural background and its economy. The country has a long history of building with stone and among the richest legacies of traditional and historic buildings in the United Kingdom. The effects of ageing, environmental conditions and past natural hazards can cause significant degradation, urging for action. The connection between distinct structural wall parts together with the characteristics and condition of all materials involved, define the structural response and strongly influence the extent and requirements for retrofitting interventions. This experimental study investigates a strengthening technique for rubble walls based on the insertion of a commercially available anchoring system, currently used in monuments by Historic Environment Scotland. It aims at providing quantitative data for this repair method in terms of the anchoring system’s pull-out strength, paving the way for a parametric investigation of factors affecting the efficiency of the intervention towards its optimisation, in terms of both cost and structural performance.