Earthquake risk mitigation of urbn cultural heritage assets

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Seismic performance-based assessment of urban cultural heritage assets through different macroelement approaches

Publication . Maio, Rui; Ferreira, Tiago Miguel; Estêvão, João M. C.; Pantò, Bartolomeo; Caliò, Ivo; Vicente, Romeu

This paper aims at providing an insightful comparison between three of the most widely used commercially available macroelement models for assessing the global seismic performance of existing masonry structures: the equivalent frame model of 3Muri®, and the two- and three-dimensional discrete macroelements available in 3D-Macro®. To this aim, a stone masonry building, representative of the Urban Cultural Heritage (UCH) typology of the Azores archipelago (in Portugal), was considered as a case study. Firstly, sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the impact of a few modelling aspects on the seismic performance of the case study building, and ultimately to define the reference model. Secondly, this reference model was analysed both linearly and nonlinearly. Finally, the seismic performance was evaluated by applying the N2 Method. With this comparative study, the authors aim at discussing, from the user viewpoint, the features that these software codes and corresponding macroelement models have in common and those where they most diverge, as well as their main advantages and drawbacks. Results demonstrate that these models should be applied to UCH assets with due diligence, bearing in mind both the particularities of the case study as well as features and limitations associated with the chosen modelling strategy and software.

2020-05Journal article

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Casting a new light on the seismic risk assessment of stone masonry buildings located within historic centres

Publication . Maio, Rui; Estêvão, João M. C.; Ferreira, Tiago Miguel; Vicente, Romeu

In light of the new legal framework in force in Portugal, which defines the terms for reporting the seismic vulnerability assessment and the need for seismic strengthening of existing buildings, this paper aims at investigating the correlation between two well-known approaches for the seismic risk assessment of stone masonry buildings located within historic centres: the vulnerability index method and nonlinear static seismic analyses. The latter were carried out by using a new three-dimensional macroelement model to numerically represent the considered sample of prototype buildings, together with the application of the N2 Method. In this paper, the original purpose of the vulnerability index method, that of ranking the seismic vulnerability of existing urban cultural heritage (UCH) assets within the same building typology, was numerically validated. However, when reverting the use of the vulnerability index method by replacing the Macroseismic Intensity with a response spectrum, the results were not as interesting as envisaged, since the correlations between the vulnerability index and the main properties of the capacity curves derived from numerical models, presented, in general, a poor fitting. Finally, the possible causes for such poor fitting and future lines of investigation are discussed. Despite these results must be understood with due care and diligence, the authors believe that this exercise might encourage new investigations on this topic that could lead to the development of a new code-oriented methodology for the seismic risk assessment of UCH assets within historic centres.

2020-06Journal article

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