Sustainable seismic retrofitting of masonry walls using FRP composites: numerical analysis and parametric optimization

Abstract Masonry structures, despite their widespread historical use, inherently exhibit high brittleness, which renders them prone to cracking and structural failure under various loading conditions; to deepen the understanding of masonry performance and offer valuable insights for the design and retrofitting of such structures, this study employs Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to investigate the structural response of masonry walls under two types of loading—cyclic concentrated transverse point loading and monotonic loading. To mitigate in-plane cracks, three strengthening schemes using Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets were implemented and their effectiveness compared, with results showing that FRP sheets achieved superior crack control performance; furthermore, a parametric study was carried out to evaluate different FRP sheet configurations under cyclic loading, focusing on their effects on force-displacement behavior, crack morphology, and peak load capacity. Among the tested configurations, the FRP layout of Case 1 (diagonal configuration) notably improved seismic resistance by reducing sliding failure and achieving more efficient stress distribution—resulting in an approximately 62% increase in peak force compared to the control model—and the results further highlight that Case 1 exhibits superior energy dissipation capacity, ductility, and stiffness retention, making it the most effective strengthening scheme for enhancing the seismic resilience of masonry walls. The findings of this study are anticipated to play a critical role in optimizing masonry retrofitting strategies, thereby facilitating the development of resilient and structurally efficient masonry walls for seismically active regions.