Seismic assessment of a masonry tower in the region stricken by the 20-29 May 2012 Emilia-Romagna, Italy, earthquake

A masonry tower (torre Fornasini), its construction dating back to the 13th century, and located in the Italian region stricken by the May 2012 earthquake sequence (Emilia earthquake) is analyzed by means of a series of sophisticated numerical models. In particular, the behavior of the cross vaults at the first storey level is the main focus of the present paper. During the earthquake???s main shocks, such vaults suffered from severe damages both on the intrados and on the extrados. Static analyses of the vaults assuming nonlinear constitutive laws with softening for both masonry and infill material are presented. In particular, to investigate the role played by the infill, preliminary incremental analyses under vertical loads are carried out. Then, the seismic response of the tower is assessed through a number of pushover analyses. From simulations results, it comes out that the crack patters obtained from the analyses are in a good agreement with the observed damages.