SEISMIC VULNERABILITY REDUCTION OF TRADITIONAL MASONRY BUILDINGS

摘要

The main damage processes and the related crisis mechanisms that usually occur in thetraditional, non-aseismic, masonry buildings affected by seismic events, are recollected asfound by previous investigations. Such investigations have shown that efficient connectionbetween the different structural components is the first step to reduce the seismicvulnerability, leading the structure to behave in a solid spatial way. The effect of thisbehaviour is that all the walls can exert their bracing action in the most efficient way, that isby means of their capacity to resist to the in-plane stresses. The aim of the present paper is toset an effective analysis tool which, using a suitable modelling, can estimate the bracing wallcapacity by means of a push-over analysis which takes into account the development of thecracking process. For this purpose, in the modelling of the cracked areas of the material, someappropriate hypothesis of orthotropic behaviour have been adopted. The applications heredeveloped represent the starting point for a wider and deeper investigation, concerning wallswith different geometric-mechanical features, able to suggest the most suitable strengtheningtechniques for the different typological situations.