Nonlinear Analysis and Strengthening Design of an Italian Masonry Monumental Building

The analysis of monumental buildings is very complex because of their irregular geometry, the variability of the properties of traditional materials, the different building techniques. As a matter of fact due to their intrinsic complexity, monumental buildings are by definition unique buildings, and they cannot be reduced to any standard structural scheme: this makes difficult to evaluate their seismic capacity. In this paper the masonry structure of an Italian monumental building, the “Teatro Comunale dei Ricomposti” in Anghiari is analysed using the computer code DIANA in order to assess its structural behaviour and its seismic vulnerability. On the basis of the numerical analyses, the unsafe regions are identified and their strengthening is designed using steel lattice structures together with other retrofitting techniques.