| KEYWORD |
MODELLING A HYSTORIC MASONRY TOWER FOR SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
keywords INTERDEPENDENCY, VULNERABILITY, SHM, FE ANALYSIS
Reference persons GIAN PAOLO CIMELLARO
External reference persons Sebastiano Marasco, Ali Zamani Noori
Description The recently updated Italian standard adds, to the conventional safety assessment, the evaluation of the bearable maximum seismic action for existing structures to define a vulnerability coefficient. This prescription actually represents a trend of current international guidelines that are gradually replacing the previous, deterministic safe/fail rationale and are accounting for nonlinear behavior. In this study in particular, reference is made to an interdependence condition between a building of public interest (City Hall) and a historic masonry tower. The latter is so close to the public building that its own vulnerability also affects the vulnerability of the City Hall itself.
This study belongs to the framework of Cultural Heritage, where ancient masonry towers represent a very common typology of structure characterized by different functions and features: bell towers, lookout or defensive towers, chimneys, minarets, etc. Other than the common issues of historic buildings (i.e. aging of materials, presence of cracks and damage, effects of successive construction phases or modifications), historic masonry towers are usually also particularly vulnerable to dynamic actions (e.g. earthquakes) due to the slenderness of their geometry and to the presence of significant dead loads. This makes seismic vulnerability assessment of historic towers a major challenge.
In-situ micro-vibration measurements have been performed during a monitoring phase to extrapolate the modal characteristics of the tower. Subsequently, a finite element model of the tower has been prepared and calibrated with the aim of performing nonlinear finite element simulations to assess the bearable maximum seismic action for the structure.
Deadline 09/09/2025
PROPONI LA TUA CANDIDATURA