The external confinement of RC columns by means of externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates is a well established technique for strengthening and retrofitting purposes. This paper presents a pilot research that includes laboratory testing of full-scale square and rectangular RC columns externally confined with glass and basalt-glass FRP laminates and subjected to pure axial load. Specimens that are representative of full-scale building columns were designed according to a dated American Concrete Institute (ACI) 318 code (i.e., prior to 1970) for gravity loads only. The study was conducted to investigate how the external confinement affects peak axial strength and deformation of a prismatic RC column. The results showed that the FRP confinement increases concrete axial strength, but it is more effective in enhancing concrete strain capacity. The discussion of the results includes a comparison with the values obtained using existing constitutive models.

Masonry is a composite material characterized by a large variability of its constituent materials. The materials used, the quality of the bond and variations in the standard of workmanship significantly affect the mechanical performance of the overall masonry structure. Masonry structures, especially the historical ones, are usually characterized by low strength, due to a variety of reasons, namely low units and/or mortar strength or low bond; this makes more difficult to study these types of structures according to general rules because of different structural schemes. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of continuous FEM (Finite Element Method) or discrete DEM (Distinct Element Method) approaches to analyse the behaviour of low strength masonry and to contribute to the knowledge and selection of the best approach with a cost and time effective solution. The comparison with experimental results on different low strength masonry validated the approaches and showed that, for low bond strength masonry, DEM approaches performed better compared to low unit strength masonry where the emphasis on joint behaviour in DEM approaches is less effective because the weak component is the unit