A significant proportion of the built heritage in historic centres is constituted by
rubble stone masonry structures. Collapses by leaf separation and disaggregation observed
after earthquakes highlight their dramatic vulnerability, especially under out-of-plane loads.
Nevertheless, their dynamic response still needs to be fully investigated and their capacity may
be overestimated by assessment approaches based on rigid-body mechanics. Effective
retrofitting solutions are also needed to protect human lives and safeguard the built heritage,
while ensuring the conservation of its architectural value. This paper describes the design of a
shake table investigation on stone masonry walls, whose materials and arrangement reproduce
those surveyed in the villages of central Italy struck by the 2016-2017 earthquake sequence.
The test setup was conceived to induce out-of-plane vertical bending under earthquake base
motion and investigate the dynamic response of multi-leaf rubble stone masonry and the gain
in seismic capacity that can be achieved with mortar-based composite reinforcements, designed
to prevent the leaf separation and disaggregation of the wall without compromising its fair
face
