The evaluation of the seismic behaviour of existing buildings is a problem increasingly felt in Italy, due to the many earthquakes that have recently occurred. The test methods currently used for the in situ assessment of the shear characteristics of masonry structures are highly destructive for the existing buildings, especially for heritage buildings. Furthermore, the way of preparation of the test panels causes damages that can affect the effective reliability of the results obtained from these methods.

A new in situ testing technique named Flat Jacks – Shear Compression Test (FJ-SCT) Method has been developed by the authors based on the use of flat jacks to apply horizontal loads: this greatly reduces the impact of the test and therefore makes the testing technique applicable in a wide range of existing buildings. A calibration campaign was performed both in laboratory, using a specific testing frame, and in situ to evaluate the operability of the defined procedures. The analysis of the results and the proposal for the processing of shear strength data were then implemented. The technique proved to be reliable, the procedures to be efficient and effective and the results to be repeatable.

Furthermore, specific tests were performed on buildings seriously damaged by the 2012 Emilia region earthquake to analyse the efficiency of masonry reinforcements. The shear tests were performed on original masonry panels and repeated on consolidated panels: the results proved the FJ-SCT method to be suitable to test the applicability of these reinforcement techniques and to estimate the strength improvement of the consolidated masonry.

由于最近发生了许多地震，因此在意大利，对现有建筑物的地震行为进行评估已成为越来越多的问题。当前用于对砌体结构的剪切特性进行原位评估的测试方法对现有建筑物（尤其是传统建筑物）具有很大的破坏性。此外，测试板的准备方式会造成损坏，这些损坏会影响从这些方法获得的结果的有效可靠性。

作者在使用扁平千斤顶施加水平载荷的基础上，开发了一种名为“扁平千斤顶–剪切压缩测试（FJ-SCT）方法”的新现场测试技术：这大大降低了测试的影响，因此进行了测试适用于各种现有建筑物的技术。在实验室中使用特定的测试框架进行了一次校准活动，并现场评估了所定义程序的可操作性。然后对结果进行分析并提出抗剪强度数据的处理建议。该技术被证明是可靠的，该过程是有效且有效的，并且结果是可重复的。

此外，还对2012年艾米利亚地区地震造成的严重破坏的建筑物进行了特定测试，以分析砌体加固的效率。剪切测试在原始砌体板上进行，并在固结板上重复进行：结果证明，FJ-SCT方法适用于测试这些加固技术的适用性并评估固结砌体的强度提高。