TY - JOUR A1 - Ferraioli, M. A1 - Miccoli, Lorenzo A1 - Abruzzese, D. T1 - Dynamic characterisation of historic bell-tower using a sensitivity-based technique for model tuning N2 - The most relevant results of the vibration-based investigations performed on a historic masonry tower in Italy namely the Santa Maria a Vico bell-tower is here presented. The first part of the study involves preliminary full-scale ambient vibration measurements in operational conditions and dynamics-based finite element (FE) modelling. At first, a manual tuning of the uncertain parameters of the model was carried out to adjust material properties, soil-structure interaction and constraining effect of the neighbouring structures. Then, based on the sensitivity analysis, only the most sensitive parameters were chosen as updating parameters. Finally, a model updating technique based on a sensitivity-based method was used to minimise the error between experimental vibration data and numerical response values. To this aim, a residual vector defined as the weighted difference between the measured quantities and calculated quantities was used. The uncertain structural parameters of the FE model were identified by minimising a robust penalty function. The calibrated model was used as an important tool for the seismic assessment of the structure using pushover analysis. Since the assumed value of the masonry compressive strength is the most sensitive parameter of non-linear behaviour, a sensitivity analysis was performed considering reference values in the range of interest. The seismic safety corresponding to increasing levels of the seismic hazard was finally investigated. KW - Masonry tower KW - Ambient vibration measurements KW - Structural identification KW - Model tuning PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-018-0272-9 SN - 2190-5479 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - Springer-Verlag GmbH CY - Germany AN - OPUS4-44161 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fontana, Patrick A1 - Miccoli, Lorenzo A1 - Grünberg, U. T1 - Experimental investigations on the initial shear strength of masonry with earth mortars N2 - In this paper, a comparative study on the initial shear strength of masonry with earth mortars is presented. Triplet tests were carried out to characterise the shear bond strength of five different types of earth mortar, three purely mineral and two with vegetable additives (wood and straw chaff), using calcium silicate blocks. In spite of their lower bulk densities, mortars with chaffs reached a value of compressive strength comparable to the values shown by the purely mineral mortars. The characteristic initial shear strengths of all the tested earth mortars were between two and five times higher than the minimum values for initial shear strengths required by standards. To assess the influence of blocks pre-wetting, a comparison between calcium silicate blocks and earth blocks was performed to evaluate the results obtained from the standard test procedure compared to the more common practice of using earth mortars in combination with earthen blocks. KW - Earth mortar KW - Sand-lime block KW - Earth block KW - Initial shear strength KW - Shear bond test KW - Masonry KW - Triplet test PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMRI.2018.10009831 SN - 2056-9459 SN - 2056-9467 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 34 EP - 49 PB - Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. CY - Olney, Bucks AN - OPUS4-43692 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -