Kinematic limit analysis of basilica Del Salvador, a significant example of neo-gothic architecture in Santiago, Chile

The Basilica del Salvador, located in Santiago,Chile, is one of the most significant examples of the Chilean Neo-gothic architecture. Its current damage state shows several local collapses caused by the March 3rd, 1985 central Chile earthquake, and the February 27th, 2010 Maule earthquake. As part of an ongoing research, this paper investigates the seismic behaviour of the church through the kinematic limit analyses. For this purpose, the main collapse mechanisms have been identified and analyzed. The results show that the seismic response is unsatisfactory and shows the inadequacy of the seismic performance of this constructional typology in a highly seismic context, due to the extremely slenderness of the structural elements and to the absence of box-behaviour, making it particularly sensitive to earthquake loading. It should be noted that these preliminary results are part of an ongoing research about the seismic retrofit of Basilica del Salvador.