Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of a Monumental Masonry Building

Recent seismic events that hit the central part of Italy have highlighted again the high vulnerability of the historical and architectonical heritage of Italy and the importance of preserving it. However, the seismic assessment of monumental buildings is particularly complex because each historical construction is a singular case realized by specific techniques. Therefore, the first step should be the knowledge of the building even if it is a difficult task. In the present paper, the seismic behavior of an important nineteenth century astronomical observatory, constructed between 1816 and 1819, was investigated. The building, located in Naples, in the southern part of Italy, and classified by the Italian code as an area of medium seismic hazard, was analyzed in the elastic and inelastic range under seismic actions. In this study, the results of two different models were proposed and critically compared. The first one was implemented by shell elements for walls and vaults developing a linear dynamic analysis, while the second one simulates the building through “equivalent frames” applying a nonlinear static analysis.

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