Seismic assessment of a historical masonry tower with nonlinear static and dynamic analyses tuned on ambient vibration tests

The paper deals with the dynamic characterization and the evaluation of the seismic performances of historical masonry towers and bell-towers that are particularly vulnerable with respect to seismic actions. The main purpose of the study is to investigate how the seismic assessment of such historical constructions is influenced by the level of refinement of the adopted models and by the type of the performed analyses. The effectiveness of some provisions contained in the Italian guidelines for the seismic risk assessment and mitigation of cultural heritage for this kind of structures is also evaluated. The study is performed with reference to the medieval civic tower of Soncino (Cremona, Italy), that is representative of the considered class of masonry constructions. The dynamic characteristics and the mechanical properties of the masonry tower are evaluated through a dynamic identification with ambient vibration tests. Analytical models of the tower characterized by different refinement levels are calibrated on the results of the performed dynamic identification and used to carry out nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. The performed analyses evidence the very conventional nature of the behaviour factor q for this kind of structure. Moreover from the analyses it results that the q values suggested by the Italian codes overestimate the actual q values. The results obtained with the nonlinear dynamic analysis are in a good agreement with those obtained with the nonlinear static analysis. However the nonlinear dynamic analysis provides levels of displacement capacity lower than those resulting from the nonlinear static analysis and allows to consider the significant effect of the higher frequencies on some of the response parameters, as the base shear. The vulnerability of the tower is also assessed according to the Italian guidelines for the seismic risk assessment and mitigation of cultural heritage using the results of the performed nonlinear static analysis.

► Study of a medieval tower representative of the class of masonry historical towers.
► Analytical models characterized by different levels of refinement.
► Relevance of dynamic identification with ambient vibration tests.
► Importance of the nonlinear dynamic analysis with refined models.
► Italian code provisions overestimate the behavior factor for masonry towers.