Effects of earthquakes with different nature on the seismic performance of masonry vaults

Abstract

Past seismic events showed that earthquakes can cause severe damages in masonry vaulted structures, which can lead to significant damage, including fatalities, and heritage and economic losses. Although seismic guidelines suggest the implementation of specific modern strengthening techniques to prevent those seismic losses, many masonry vaulted structures are unreinforced and they are one of the most vulnerable structural elements in monumental buildings, such as churches and palaces. Thus, the present paper focuses on the seismic performance of a numerical model, which simulates an experimental reduced-scale dry-joints vault, through the nonlinear dynamic analysis, by applying several earthquakes of different nature. The numerical model was built based on the discrete element method, where it is possible to simulate the detailed geometrical properties: the interlocking between the blocks, the cuts along the diagonals, the offset of the units and the boundary conditions. Moreover, the model was calibrated based on results obtained from shake table tests. The results of this sensitivity analysis, obtained from the different inputs, are compared in terms of damage patterns.