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Seismic response of a small-scale masonry groin vault: experimental investigation by performing quasi-static and shake table tests

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Abstract

The seismic safety assessment of 3D complex structural elements of historic buildings, such as groin and rib vaults, is a challenge and experimental tests can provide relevant data for this purpose. This paper presents the results of two experimental campaigns about a reduced scale 3D printed vault characterized by asymmetric boundary conditions. The specimen adopted the square plan geometry of groin vault and was made of polymeric bricks with radial joints, orthogonally woven at the barrel intersection. The seismic behaviour of the vault was studied through physical modelling: quasi-static using actuators and dynamic using a shake-table. In particular, an incremental dynamic analysis up to the collapse of the vault was carried out. The results obtained experimentally were analysed in terms of damage, collapse mechanisms, ultimate displacements, and response spectrum-based analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering and all the technicians for providing the experimental data for the shake table tests. This work was partly financed by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the SERA.TA project “Seismic Response of Masonry Cross Vaults: Shaking table tests and numerical validations” and the PhD grant SFRH/BD/136831/2018. Finally, the authors would like to thank the Reviewers who contributed to significantly improve the overall quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal

    N. Bianchini, N. Mendes & P. B. Lourenço

  2. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Unit (NESDE), Department of Structures, Structures Department, National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), Avenida Do Brasil, 101, 1700-066, Lisbon, Portugal

    P. X. Candeias

  3. Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering (DICCA), University of Genoa, Via Montallegro 1, 16145, Genoa, Italy

    C. Calderini & M. Rossi

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Bianchini, N., Mendes, N., Calderini, C. et al. Seismic response of a small-scale masonry groin vault: experimental investigation by performing quasi-static and shake table tests. Bull Earthquake Eng 20, 1739–1765 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-021-01280-0

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