Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Seismic performance of the St. George of the Latins church: Lessons learned from studying masonry ruins

2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 40; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.engstruct.2012.03.003

1873-7323

Paulo B. Lourénço, Alejandro Trujillo, Nuno Mendes, Luís F. Ramos,

Structural Response to Dynamic Loads

This work addresses the seismic safety of the remainings of one church in Famagusta (Cyprus), including also a historical survey, inspection and diagnosis. The seismic safety is studied in detail, using limit analysis of collapse mechanisms as preliminary safety assessment. Then, a finite element model was prepared and updated using dynamic identification results. The updated model was subjected to non-linear static (pushover) analysis in different directions (global and principal) using two lateral load patterns: proportional to the mass and proportional to the modal shapes of the structure. Finally, a time history analysis is also performed. The results allow to conclude that: (a) limit analysis of collapse mechanism can be adequately employed for the seismic assessment of masonry ruins, as they provide comparable results to more sophisticated analysis; (b) load patterns proportional to the mode shapes in pushover analysis of complex masonry structures should be carefully considered, as they can provide too conservative results; (c) the ruins of the church exhibit a low seismic safety.