A method for the analysis and classification of historic masonry

Antonio Borri, Marco Corradi, Giulio Castori, Alessandro De Maria

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

172 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is known that the mechanical behavior of masonry material depends on many factors, such as compressive or shear strength of components (mortar and blocks), blocks shape, volumetric ratio between components and wall texture, that is the result of applying a series of construction devices which form the “rule of the art”. Taking into account the complexity of the problem due to the great number of variables, a fair assessment of the load carrying capacity of masonries can be made only with in situ test. Being in situ test a semi-destructive methods, not always viable, a numerical estimate of the mechanical parameters of the walls can be made on the basis of a qualitative criteria evaluation. The method here proposed, called Masonry Quality Index method, consists in evaluating the presence, the partial presence, or the absence of certain parameters that define the “rule of the art”, namely a set of construction devices that, if executed during the construction of a wall, provides a good behavior and ensure the compactness and the monolithicity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2647-2665
Number of pages19
JournalBulletin of Earthquake Engineering
Volume13
Issue number9
Early online date6 Feb 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Sep 2015
Externally publishedYes

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