THE IMPROVING OF THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF EXISTING OLD PUBLIC UNREINFORCED MASONRY BUILDINGS

摘要

The paper is devoted to historical masonry buildings protection against the destructive influence of earthquakes. Strengthening such buildings that were not originally designed to resist seismic actions became a common practice in structural engineering in Romania. Seismic retrofitting of the cultural heritage, especially of the historic buildings, requires compliance with the severe restrictions of the Romanian legislation related to the preservation of the original artistic and structural features. That's why the technical assessment, the strengthening followed by the rehabilitation of an old heritage building became an engineering "art" with a firm "scientific base". After a very short presentation on the evolution of the masonry buildings in Romania, the paper deals with the study of a prototype of such a building in Constanta city, within which "The National History and Archeology Museum" is located. To perform the technical assessment of the above mentioned building a theory of damage and failure of unreinforced masonry walls was applied. This theory was conceived by the Romanian engineer Emilian Titaru when he studied the behavior of masonry buildings in Karpos district, after the July 26, 1963 Skopje earthquake. For the strengthening of the museum building the concept of "spectral position" was used. Some information on the use in Romania of the concept of "base isolation" is also given.