The Green Tape project. ‘In falso’ walls strengthening through natural FRCM innovative techniques

The lore of a peculiar architectural–structural feature, common in heritage, is discussed: the ‘ in falso ’ wall, a load-bearing masonry built without a direct load path to foundations, resting directly on the underlying vaults. An intervention in FRCM is designed to be a solution more sustainable than traditional ones, avoiding damage to masonry vaults and other historical elements and using an optimised amount of composites. An experimental campaign assesses the structural behaviour of ‘ in falso ’ walls in the scenario of a cascading collapse due to the underlying slabs’ damage under seismic actions. Numerical models are also introduced, as a tool useful to clarify the behaviour of such walls and to optimise the design of the above-mentioned composites, usually applied over the entire masonry surface. • A new approach to FRCM interventions is proposed. • A novel experimental setup for ‘in falso’ walls at real scale is presented. • Numerical models for the choice of base design features are proposed. • Improvements resulting from the different restoration interventions are evaluated. • The method improves structural performance while preserving heritage integrity.