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Old masonry buildings, which are frequently part of the cities-built heritage, are vulnerable to seismic actions. Thus, it is important to conduct efficient seismic strengthening interventions that allow maintenance of the existing building to minimize the environmental and economic impact. The use of reinforced renders is a simple and effective solution for seismic strengthening of this type of constructions. In this paper, several compositions of reinforced renders are analyzed, consisting of mortars with air lime, hydraulic lime, or cement binders, reinforced with steel mesh, fiberglass mesh and a natural fiber mesh. Additionally, the results of diagonal compression tests on three small wall specimens are presented, one of which is non-reinforced and the other two are strengthened with reinforced renders. The results of all tested walls are presented and compared, allowing us to evaluate the efficiency of the reinforced render on the wall shear strength.

This paper addresses the planar measurement problem in the destructive mechanical testing of masonry specimens, describing the proposed optical measurement solution. The adopted affine geometrical camera model is described as well as its experimental implementation using a digital camera and a measurement referential traceable to the International System of Units (SI). Experimental results from non-destructive tests are presented and discussed, including measurements obtained from the use of classical contact instrumentation. Measurement estimates and uncertainties related to the quantified mechanical properties are also shown.