Modelling and structural analysis of historical masonry systems including vaulted structure

• Autores: Yohei Endo
• Directores de la Tesis: Luca Pela (dir. tes.), Pere Roca Fabregat (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2015
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Climent Molins Borrell (presid.), Miquel Llorens Sulivera (secret.), Ignacio Lombillo Vozmediano (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Ciencias tecnológicas
    • Tecnología de la construcción
      • Ingeniería de estructuras
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
• Resumen

  • The conservation of historic structures has been given special attention due to their cultural, social and economic importance. However they often show considerable structural vulnerability and have been seriously damaged by natural disasters including earthquakes. An excessive loss of architectural heritage has occurred because of earthquakes. A safety assessment and restoration practice on historical structures has been tackled extensively by professionals including architects and engineers. However, structural assessment of historical buildings is a complex task. Complexity comes from insufficient understanding of the characteristic of historical materials, limited knowledge of the seismic response of historical structures and yet-unknown structural deterioration due to the past natural disasters. Today it is perceived that nonlinear FEM analysis permits detailed study of historical masonry structures. However, in some cases, its application poses difficulties. The difficulties derive from the definition of material properties, the definition of a complex geometry and the analysis procedures. The results depend on the material properties considerably. However, it is not easy to describe appropriately the behaviour of historical materials including masonry in the FEM analysis. The definition of a complex geometry is challenging although the discretisation of accurate geometry is crucial. As for the analysis procedure, one of the difficulties is observed in seismic assessment. FEM-based nonlinear dynamic analysis permits close observation of seismic response of a historical masonry structure but it requires excessive computational effort, for a large-scale structure in particular. On the other hand, pushover can be adopted more efficiently than nonlinear dynamic analysis but the obtained result can be less reliable. All these considerations indicate that the understanding of FEM approaches still needs to be deepened to adopt more accurately and at the same time efficiently for the analysis of historical structures. The present research discusses the applicability of existing nonlinear FEM approaches to the study of masonry historical structures. The FEM analysis is adopted to the analysis of real and complex structures including mixed steel and masonry vaulted systems belonging to the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona and a large single-nave church damaged by the 2009 Abruzzo earthquake. As a final outcome of the research, the conclusions provided criteria and guidelines for the analysis of these types of structures under vertical loading and seismic forces. The achievement of the research will contribute to both engineers and researchers who are involved in the conservation of historical masonry structures especially by means of FEM analysis.