Peeling tests on reinforced earth specimens

The maintenance of earthen masonry heritage needs scientific knowledge on reinforcement systems to assess appropriate renovations; in fact, acting with appropriate corrections and devices, earthen buildings can be used even in areas subject to seismic risk, guaranteeing acceptable safety. The aim of the reinforcement intervention is to increase resistance against the seismic actions and improve the ductility, both for the individual structural elements and for the construction. Strengthening systems are applied in order to avoid collapse mechanisms due to seismic actions and connect them each other; in so doing, the strengthening system is subject, in turn, to peeling and tangential loads. This paper fits in a wide research work on reinforcement methods of earthen structures; in particular, the first results will be presented of an experimental campaign of peeling tests of jute fabric strips applied on prismatic earth specimens, carried out to evaluate the adhesion properties of the strengthening system. The results are going to be compared with those obtained from single lap joint tests already carried out and interpreted with existing analytical models