Damage Assessment by Numerical Modeling of Sant'Agostino's Sanctuary in Offida During the Central Italy 2016–2017 Seismic Sequence

Abstract

The subject of this work is the Sant'Agostino Sanctuary in Offida (Italy); we investigated both the dynamic behavior and the seismic vulnerability of the complex, used nowadays in its parts as school building, oratory, and church. Offida is in central Italy; the village has been severely damaged by the last seismic events of 2016. The sanctuary was heavily damaged by the earthquake of 24 August 2016. We recurred to finite elements to estimate the vulnerability of the sanctuary and its dynamic response, considering masonry's non-linear behavior by means of proper constitutive assumptions. To estimate how the monastery bears the lateral loads related to the expected demands resulting from seismic actions (N2 method) using non-linear static analysis (Pushover), we recurred to a homogenized material and smeared cracking and crushing constitutive law. As may be remarked by observing buildings that share the same features of the sanctuary and, moreover, by comparing seismic demand vs. capacity, the structure is prone to massive damage leading to collapse. The paper underlines how advanced numerical analysis grants fundamental data on how historical masonry buildings behave under seismic action, providing a method that may easily be implemented at historic monasteries in Europe.

Damage Survey and Advanced Seismic Analyses of Different Masonry Churches After the Central Italy Earthquake of 2016

“…The results show that in most of the cases the real damage is reproduced faithfully. This capacity is also shown in other papers as [21,22]. The main results of Santissimo Crocifisso church are reported in Figure 6, where a good comparison between the real and the numerical damages is summarized for the South and the West façades.…”

Analytical and numerical seismic assessment of heritage masonry towers

“…The results of the pushover analyses were then used to perform seismic safety check according to the N2 method, proposed by Fajfar and Gašperšič (1996), extended to applications to historic buildings (D'Ayala and Ansal 2012;D'Ayala et al 2015;Giordano et al 2019). The process consists of obtaining the appropriate inelastic response, i.e.…”

Damage assessment of ancient masonry churches stroked by the Central Italy earthquakes of 2016 by the non-smooth contact dynamics method

“…Consequently, the seismic response of churches is mostly governed by the activation of local mechanisms of macro-elements (Lagomarsino and Podestà 2004;Giresini 2016;Giresini and Sassu 2017). One of the principal consequences of this response is the relevant vulnerability of churches, even higher than usual masonry building stocks (Giordano et al 2019).…”