Diagrid Exoskeletons for the Retrofit of RC Buildings. Holistic sustainable solutions to renovate post world war II RC buildings in a Life-Cycle Perspective

Enormous resources are being invested in Europe to foster environmental, economic, and social sustainability; however, such relevant effort to reach ambitious targets may be a missed chance unless a deep and systematic intervention on the built environment is undertaken to target sustainability, safety, and resilience at the same time. This thesis contributes to the scientific debate, focusing on holistic renovation from outside of reinforced concrete buildings by embracing a life cycle perspective. Within such a new perspective, new technology options are needed; among the possible retrofit solutions, the diagrid structures as an innovative strengthening technique from outside are investigated. First, a design procedure for elastic diagrid is proposed; then, a parametric evaluation of the retrofitted system through a simplified 2 DOF system is conducted and a set of design spectra are defined to derive the optimal retrofit parameter for RC buildings. Finally, a reference case study is developed to assess and validate the procedure.