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The assessment of the static and dynamic behaviour of historic masonry towers, together with the development of proper preservation strategies, has attracted in recent decades the interest of a plethora of scholars. Most of the studies focus on the assessment of their seismic behaviour since their slenderness exposes them to the dynamic effects induced by medium-to-severe earthquakes. This paper, which is framed in this background, discusses on a preliminary identification of the seismic behaviour of Giotto's bell tower in Florence, one of the iconic masonry towers ever built in Italy. In the first part of this paper, a summary of the available information on this bell tower is provided. Next, a refined numerical model, built through the finite element technique, and based on a recent laser scanning survey, is reported and employed to investigate its seismic behaviour. The numerical model accounts (in a simplified way) for the soil-structure-interaction, and scaled natural accelerograms selected based on the Florence seismic hazard are considered to develop linear and nonlinear time-history analyses. The results allow an initial assessment of the seismic behaviour of Giotto's bell tower suggesting both future in-depth investigations and analyses, together with proper preservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the problems of major concern in designing large oil storage tanks is the interaction with the foundation soil, particularly in terms of differential settlements. Ultimate or serviceability limit states can be reached due to nonallowable local displacements along the tank perimeter. This paper presents experimental data obtained during the construction of a thermal power plant in Northern Italy. The performed analyses have been particularly devoted to highlighting the occurrence of local soil yielding and its influence on the performance of oil tank structures. The analyses address the influence of local soil yielding on excess pore pressure response as well as on the trend of lateral displacements and perimeter differential settlements. As soon as the soil reaches a yielding condition, significant changes occur in terms of the overall soil-structure interaction phenomena, with consequences mainly in the displacement patterns and rates. The obtained evidence reported in the paper are aimed to focus the attention of the designer on the need to properly detect the stress history of the soil deposit. CE Database keywords: Differential settlement; Displacement; Soil-structure interaction; Storage tanks; Yield.