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Damages to masonry churches after 2016–2017 Central Italy seismic sequence and definition of fragility curves

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Abstract

The paper presents a detailed report on a large sample of masonry churches damaged by the 2016–2017 Central Italy seismic sequence. The first part of the work analyses the seismic sequence to give an overview of the occurred events in terms of both ground motion parameters and macro-seismic intensities. The surveyed data are organized into a database made, to date, of 990 cases, which represent almost one-fourth of the whole surveys performed during the emergency phase. Such a significant statistical sample was used to carry out a regional scale typological analysis in order to identify the most recurrent typologies of churches present in Central Italy. The analysis of the observed damage and usability outcomes allowed drawing some conclusions on the behaviour of the inspected churches under the 2016–2017 seismic sequence. The collected data were used to create damage probability matrixes for homogeneous classes of churches at different damage levels and, successively, to implement the corresponding fragility curves in terms of PGA.

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Acknowledgements

Authors want to acknowledge MiBACT, Department of Civil Protection and ReLUIS consortium for giving the possibility to help in the emergency phase and to analyse the gathered dataset. A special thank goes to all collaborators from both universities (Padova, Napoli Federico II, Napoli Parthenope) who passionately surveyed and judged all the inspected churches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Elvis Cescatti & Francesca da Porto

  2. Engineering Department, University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Centro Direzionale is. C4, 80143, Naples, Italy

    Piera Salzano & Francesca Ceroni

  3. Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Claudia Casapulla & Andrea Prota

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  1. Elvis Cescatti
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  2. Piera Salzano
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  3. Claudia Casapulla
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  4. Francesca Ceroni
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  5. Francesca da Porto
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  6. Andrea Prota
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Correspondence to Elvis Cescatti.

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Cescatti, E., Salzano, P., Casapulla, C. et al. Damages to masonry churches after 2016–2017 Central Italy seismic sequence and definition of fragility curves. Bull Earthquake Eng 18, 297–329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-019-00729-7

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