Luca Righetti

Masonry buildings constitute a large percentage of the English heritage buildings: castles, cathedrals, churches, abbeys, bridges, city walls and also the farm houses. For many centuries, masonry was the main construction system used. However it must be taken into account that the term “masonry” is used to briefly summarize an extended area that needs to be differentiated according to several factors. Indeed, the variability of the geographical, social and economic characteristics has caused an extreme differentiation in terms of materials and construction techniques which consequently causes, as well as other aesthetic characteristics, extremely different mechanical behaviour of the masonry structural elements.  The research project is involved in the analysis of historic masonry and timber structures and their strengthening with the use of innovative retrofitting techniques and materials (FRPs, steel fibres, natural composite materials). 

Research Supervisors

• Dr Marco Corradi
• Dr  Kathryn Coventry

Key Publications

- Corradi, M., Righetti, L., Borri, A. (2015). Bond strength of composite CFRP reinforcing bars in timber. Materials, ISSN 1996-1944, doi: 10.3390/ma8074034, 8, 4034-4049.

- Righetti L., Corradi M., Borri A. (2015) “Analytical study on bond behaviour of CFRP bars epoxied into timber elements”. Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Structural Healt Assessment of Timber Structures, Wroclaw, Poland, 9th -11th September 2015.

- Righetti L., Corradi M., Borri A. (2015) “Strengthening of timber beams with unbonded FRP composites”. Procedings of 16th European bridge Conference, Edinburgh, 23rd -25th June 2015.

- Corradi M., Righetti L., Osofero A.I., Borri A., Castori G., Sisti R. (2015) “Accelerated aging and fatigue effects on GFRP grids”. Proceedings of 6th Conference on Collapses, Reliability and Retrofit of Structures (IF CRASC ’15), Rome, Italy, 14th -16th  May 2015.