Seismic assessment of historical masonry structures through advanced nonlinear dynamic simulations: Applications to castles, churches, and palaces

The preservation of architectural heritage against earthquakes is currently a topic of increasing interest in Italy and requires an accurate seismic response assessment of the structures. Recent Italian seismic events have shown that severe damage or partial collapse can be caused to historical buildings even by low-to-moderate intensity earthquakes. Structural analysis is a fundamental tool to better evaluate the seismic response and vulnerability of historical buildings and define effective strengthening interventions: in particular, the use of advanced numerical tools to perform three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analyses allows obtaining a thorough detailed knowledge of the seismic behavior of such a typology of structures. This chapter investigates the seismic response and damage distribution of three important historical masonry constructions of the outstanding cultural heritage in Mantua (Northern Italy) after the 2012 Emilia earthquake: the recent seismic sequence and the consequent significant crack patterns observed in the postearthquake survey phase pointed out their vulnerability to small seismic actions. Detailed and representative 3D finite element models of the historical masonry constructions are developed and nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out to gain a deep numerical insight into the seismic response of the three structures, identifying the damage patterns and the most vulnerable parts for different seismic intensity levels.