Seismic Vulnerability of Quasi-Brittle Crack Structures

Abstract eng:
In the paper one addresses problems concerning the analysis in the static and dynamic ranges of structures made by masonry material. The analysis of quasi-brittle constructions is usually requiring an appropriate formal set up and analytical treatment [1]-[10]. About this topic a number of studies on the statics and dynamics of structural systems made of materials exhibiting quite poor, null in the limit, tensile strength, have been extensively developed in literature [11]-[24]. The further assumption, that considerably simplifies the solution of the problem, based on some agreement with current observation, is that the compressed material exhibits and indefinitely linear elastic behaviour, apart from local problems that are not included in a first level approach. These assumptions lead to rather reliable modelling for safety assessments and succeeds in giving reason of the main features of the structural behaviour of masonry buildings, finally pushing towards the No-Tension fundamental hypothesis. It follows that this, relatively simple, mechanical model yields a firm reference point for technical well-founded assessment, as well as the current reinforced-concrete theory does. In the paper one thus refers to a masonry material modelled through such hypothesis in order to study existing buildings and objects, based on their geometrical similarity as regards to their own safety and dynamic response. Some developments are reported allowing to draw some conclusions about the correlation in the response of similar masonry solids with different size, under the action of specified, possibly time-varying, loads. The treatment is intentionally confined to the case in which the original solid and the model are geometrically affine, since structural systems are most often very complex, and more elaborated transformations may be rather hard to be realised. The main focus is on the circumstance that, although some preliminary result could be drawn from simple dimensional analysis, a specialised equation approach is to be preferred, as developed in the paper, since it yields much more details allowing to identify possible strategies to be investigated in order to improve the similitude between the models.

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