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The paper presents an analysis of the causes and effects of masonry vaults damage after a construction disaster in the historic church of St. George in Hajduki Nyskie (southern Poland), dated to the beginning of the XIV century. As a result of the collapse of the eastern gable wall, some parts of the vaults and a wooden roof were destroyed, as well as other structural elements and part of the church's equipment. The building combines late Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque style elements, representing high, trans-regional historical and artistic, religious and cultural values, in particular due to the valuable gothic wall paintings preserved in the nave. The paper presents the state of the building before and after the construction disaster as well as recommendations regarding the reconstruction of the vaults.

The main objective of this study was to examine the dynamic response of a masonry monumental apartment building subjected to a strong seismic event. A three-dimensional FE model of the building was prepared with the ABAQUS Standard software program. Three components of the registered seismic event were applied as seismic excitation acting in three directions. To represent the inelastic behavior of the masonry elements of the structure under the earthquake, a Barcelona Model (BM) was assumed as a constitutive model for the masonry elements. The analysis proved that strongly nonlinear behavior of the masonry monumental apartment building was observed under the strong seismic shock. The plastic strains as well as the tensile damage (cracking) were obtained in some zones of the walls of the structure after seismic shock. In the paper authors also discussed the methodology for strengthening and structural health monitoring dedicated for historical masonry structures.

In this paper we present the results of investigation of micro- and nanoscale degradation of a sheet moulded composite exposed to simulated solar radiation. Utilization of high resolution methods such as atomic force microscopy, optical profilometry and microcomputer tomography allowed us to provide the evidence of significant deterioration of the surface as well as the material few microns in depth. Additionally, the typically used macroscopic investigations, such as wettability and flexural strength, were performed to observe the impact of weathering process. It was also shown that high resolution techniques provide superior sensitivity of the material degradation detection. The particular effectiveness of the applied approach was related to the structure of investigated material, as due to its degradation, a number of voids appeared, causing a significant roughness increase. In addition, the impact of light radiation could be compared to other environmental conditions maintained in the climatic chamber. It should be underlined, that according to our knowledge, such a study has not been performed so far.

This paper presents investigations of the wooden ceiling in the Leopoldinum Auditorium at Wrocław University (Poland). The investigations included: material, moisture content, mycological, resistographic, thermographic and dynamic load tests. The causes of damage to the valuable poly-chrome have been identified. A concept of conserving and strengthening the ceiling and the false vault is proposed.

The paper presents the results of experimental testing of six masonry rings built to technical scale and strengthened with CFRP strips and sheets and also with an FRCM system with PBO, glass, basalt and carbon fibers. The rings were subjected to tensile loads induced by four hydraulic jacks. The assumption is that the masonry rings are a representative simplification of domes, especially their structural support. Both single layered domes and ribbed domes are exposed to tensile stress in up to one third of their height.