Seismic vulnerability assessment of a Romanian historical masonry building under near-source earthquake

Abstract

In the present research work, the effect of ground motion vertical component in case of near-source excitations on masonry buildings has been analysed. To this purpose, an investigation has been made on the Banloc Castle, a historical masonry construction damaged by the Banat-Voiteg earthquake occurred on December 1991 in the Romanian Region of Banloc. A FEM model of the building, setup using DIANA FEA analysis software, has been analysed in the non-linear dynamic field. In particular, the records have been referred to the Banloc site, characterized by a moment magnitude of 5.5 and a focal depth of 9 km. In order to estimate the influence of the vertical seismic motion on the case study building in terms of both displacement and internal forces, two different scenarios have been examined. The first scenario has taken into account the horizontal component only, whereas the second one has studied the simultaneous effects of three components of the seismic action. The comparison between the two scenarios has shown that the vertical ground motion significantly modifies the structural behaviour of the inspected building. Finally, numerical damage patterns have been plotted and compared to the real cracks detected in the case study after the considered seismic event.