Dynamic and Earthquake Behaviour of Greek Post-Byzantine Churches with Foundation Deformability—Experimental Investigation of Stone Masonry Material Properties

Dynamic Behaviour and Earthquake Performance of Greek Basilica Churches With Foundation Deformability

“…In order for such a retrofitting scheme to be effective the resulting strength / demand ratios should attain values larger than the corresponding values without this retrofitting scheme and, if possible, larger than 1 (10], [11], [15]). Such an evaluation has been performed for the most vulnerable structural elements of this church; that is the internal colonnades, the South peripheral wall and the East peripheral wall with the apses.…”

“…This is based: a) On the numerical predictions of the state of stress of the masonry walls as obtained from the dynamic analysis of this elastic numerical simulation being subjected to a combination of dead load and seismic forces and b) On the values of the strength over demand ratios at the most critical locations of the masonry walls and vaults. In doing so, strength values were assumed for in-plane shear and flexure as well as out-of-plane flexure for relatively weak unreinforced stone masonry ( [9], [10], [11], [12]). …”

“…Next, the procedure outlined by Manos et al ([9], [10], [11], [12]) was followed for evaluating the performance of this church. This is based: a) On the numerical predictions of the state of stress of the masonry walls as obtained from the dynamic analysis of this elastic numerical simulation being subjected to a combination of dead load and seismic forces and b) On the values of the strength over demand ratios at the most critical locations of the masonry walls and vaults.…”

“…In some instances, the deformability of the soil caused considerable damage as is the case of the church of The Assumption of the Virgin Mary at Dilofo-Voio-Kozani, as will be presented in section 2 ( [7], [8]). In some other cases the main cause of recent damage is the earthquake activity that is accentuated by the deformability of the soil ( [9], [10], [11], [12]). This is presented in the section 3, where the damage of the church of Agia Triada at Vithos-Kozani and of Profitis Elias at Siatista-Kozani is also included, as well as in section 4 where the earthquake performance of the old Byzantine church of Achiropoiitos in Thesalloniki is examined.…”