MODELLAZIONE TRIDIMENSIONALE DI CONNESSIONI MURARIE

Some works in recent years were devoted to the investigation of failure mechanisms in view of the vulnerability assessment of historical masonry buildings and monuments. Shapes of collapse mechanisms were derived mainly by observation of damages of past earthquakes or, simply, by identifying weak structural solutions characterizing the typology under investigation. It seems that if sound damage scenarios have to be produced, more appropriate and quantified relations are necessary between structural behaviour and level of horizontal action, taking into account structural connections between intersecting walls. In earlier works, discrete systems of blocks interacting by non-linear springs were analysed with simplified plane models using a non linear finite element code (ANSYS). In this paper a similar procedure has been carried out through full 3D models. The results permit to quantify the overstrength, in term of collapse load, offered by connections, in function of the building height and of the spacing of longitudinal stiffening walls.