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Italy is a high seismic risk country. Since 1900 more than 30 earthquakes with magnitude greater than Mw=5.8 occurred, and the last one is the Central Italy seismic sequence. The first shock aroused in the 24th August (Mw=6.2) followed by another stronger quake in the 30th October (Mw=6.5). It heavily hit the regions of Marche, Umbria, and Abruzzo causing many deaths, injuries and extensive damages on the cultural heritage. This paper analyses the church of San Francesco in Amadola, located in the Marche region that has been considered condemned for the severe damages reported after these earthquakes. The church is globally analyzed by the application of nonlinear static analysis on a Finite Element Model where the nonlinearity of masonry is taking into account with a proper constitutive law. The study wants to prove how global analysis combined by the local analysis can reproduce the behavior of this structure during a quake, showing that it can repeat the real damages produced by earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents some FE results regarding the behavior under horizontal loads of eight existing masonry towers located in the North-East of Italy. The towers, albeit unique for geometric and architectural features, show some affinities which justify a comparative analysis, as for instance the location and the similar masonry material. Their structural behavior under horizontal loads is therefore influenced by geometrical issues, such as slenderness, walls thickness, perforations, irregularities, presence of internal vaults, etc., all features which may be responsible for a peculiar output. The geometry of the towers is deduced from both existing available documentation and in-situ surveys. On the basis of such geometrical data, a detailed 3D realistic mesh is conceived, with a point by point characterization of each single geometric element. The FE models are analysed under seismic loads acting along geometric axes of the plan section, both under non-linear static (pushover) and non-linear dynamic excitation assumptions. A damage-plasticity material model exhibiting softening in both tension and compression, already available in the commercial code Abaqus, is used for masonry. Pushover analyses are performed with both G1 and G2 horizontal loads distribution, according to Italian code requirements, along X+/- and Y+/- directions. Non-linear dynamic analyses are performed along both X and Y directions with a real accelerogram scaled to different peak ground accelerations. Some few results are presented in this paper. It is found that the results obtained with pushover analyses reasonably well fit expensive non-linear dynamic simulations, with a slightly less conservative trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with modelling and analysis of architectural heritage through the discussion of an illustrative case study: the Medieval Sanctuary of Sant'Agostino (Offida, Italy). Using the finite element technique, a 3D numerical model of the sanctuary is built, and then used to identify the main sources of the damages. The work shows that advanced numerical analyses could offer significant information for the understanding of the causes of existing damage and, more generally, on the seismic vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the statics of the stellar (i.e. star-shaped) vault of the church of Santa Maria del Monte in Cagliari. This church, which was built during the second half of the 16th century, is a beautiful example of Gothic-Catalan style and the ribbed stellar vault is one of the most representative of this type in the town of Cagliari. A comparison between a static finite element non-linear analysis carried out with the commercial code Diana and a limit analysis performed with a method recently developed by the research team of the University of Ferrara is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]