Dynamic Behaviour of Greek Post-Byzantine Churches With Foundation Deformability and Evaluation of Their Earthquake Performance - Experimental Investigation of Stone Masonry Material Properties

Abstract eng:
The earthquake performance of stone masonry Post-Byzantine churches subjected to seismic forces is examined. The examined churches are: 1. A three-nave Basilica with a system of stone-masonry vaults and domes as a superstructure together with a wooden roof. 2. An 18th century church of the cruciform type which also utilizes a system of cylindrical vaults and spherical domes that form the superstructure together with the wooden roof. 3. A threenave 18th century Basilica whose the wooden roof is supported directly on the peripheral masonry walls and the internal colonnades. All these churches developed structural damage to the masonry elements that is believed to arise from the amplitude of the gravitational and seismic actions combined with the deformability of the foundation, a parameter that is also part of this investigation. The numerical results together with assumed strength values are utilized to predict the behaviour of the various masonry parts in in-plane shear and normal stress as well as out-of-plane flexure. It is demonstrated that the foundation deformability explains, partly, the appearance of structural damage. When comparing the numerically predicted regions that reach limit state conditions with actual damage patterns a reasonably good agreement in a qualitative sense can be observed. The masonry walls near the foundation, the door and window openings, and the roof appear to be the most vulnerable either in out-of-plane bending or in in-plane shear for the critical combination of seismic forces and gravitational loads. Moreover, the vaults and domes of the superstructure appear to be vulnerable also. A relatively mild retrofitting scheme that utilizes special mortar injections as well as semi-temporary shoring together with wooden and metal ties is then examined. This is also investigated numerically being applied to a 16th Century Basilica with a wooden roof. The numerical investigation is supplemented with a series of limited Laboratory tests on the constituent materials represented by old stone masonry.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket