Seismic vulnerability reduction of traditional masonry buildings

The main damage processes and the related crisis mechanisms that usually occur in the traditional, non-aseismic, masonry buildings affected by seismic events, are recollected as found by previous investigations. Such investigations have shown that efficient connection between the different structural components is the first step to reduce the seismic vulnerability, leading the structure to behave in a solid spatial way. The effect of this behaviour is that all the walls can exert their bracing action in the most efficient way, that is by means of their capacity to resist to the in-plane stresses. The aim of the present paper is to set an effective analysis tool which, using a suitable modelling, can estimate the bracing wall capacity by means of a push-over analysis which takes into account the development of the cracking process. For this purpose, in the modelling of the cracked areas of the material, some appropriate hypothesis of orthotropic behaviour have been adopted. The applications here developed represent the starting point for a wider and deeper investigation, concerning walls with different geometric-mechanical features, able to suggest the most suitable strengthening techniques for the different typological situations.