Experimental and numerical procedure for vulnerability assessment of historical masonry building aggregates

Historic buildings are a substantial part of the Italian architectural heritage; hence, standard procedure is necessary to evaluate the global and local vulnerabilities. The heterogeneity of materials and technologies combined with the complex volumetric shape of the building aggregates that is constituted by several structural typologies make the definition of a standard approach a hard challenge. This work reports two case studies of rural aggregate buildings. The complex systems were examined both with local and global tests by sonic and dynamic identification. Sonic tests were carried out on representative structural elements, while the dynamic identification considered the volume interaction by modal shapes and related frequencies. For both experimental techniques, a parametric analysis was carried out on results to define reliable 2D and 3D numerical models. This paper provides the formulation of a simplified approach of a 2D FE model based on experimental data to identify potential failure mechanisms.