An overview on the performances of natural fiber-reinforced mortars in seismic applications

Natural fiber-based materials are having a growing interest into engineering applications, especially as a consequence of climate change issues. In such a context, composite mortar with reinforced natural fibers represents a valid option with respect to unreinforced or synthetic fiber reinforced ones. Basically, the addition of fibers enhances both thermal and mechanical properties of mortar, with the further advantage in terms of sustainable and environmental-friendly structural solutions also in seismic areas. This paper reports a systematic state-of-art review concerning the current scientific knowledge in the field of natural-based reinforced mortars. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis is carried out in order to populate a database of mechanical and thermal data coming from the technical literature with the aim of analyzing and comparing the global performance of mortar samples reinforced with different types of natural fibers and characteristics (i.e., fiber length, percentage, type, etc.). The research represents a useful baseline for understating pros and cons related to the use of additional fibers in mortar mixtures and to program experimental testing, as that started by the authors on broom-reinforced mortar also addressed in this paper.