Ricerc@Sapienza

Masonry constructions are an important part of the historic and architectural heritage of many countries and the analysis of their safety conditions, as well as the design of repair and strengthening interventions, is a challenging task. Many efforts have been devoted in the past to develop methodologies able to accurately reproduce masonry structural response. Relevant and even pioneer contributions can be found proposing analytical methods to evaluate the limit load of masonry elements, such as walls and arches.

This study presents a two-scale model to describe the out-of-plane masonry response. One-dimensional (1D) structural elements, like masonry columns or strips of long wall characterized by the periodic repetition of bricks and mortar arranged in stack bond, are considered. A damage-friction plasticity law is adopted to model the mortar joint constitutive response, while the bricks are assumed as linear elastic. A 1D beam formulation is introduced at both the structural and micromechanical scale, linking the two levels by means of a kinematic map.

Classical approaches to soil-structure interaction are often characterised by relatively simple constitutive assumptions for either one or both components of the problem. Such simplified assumptions prove to be appropriate for simple soil-foundation cases, while showing all their limits when tackling more complex problems, as those involving excavation in the vicinity or beneath historical masonry structures.

The essay proposes a multi-criteria examination of Rome's late 19th century tenement house. After city's annexation to the Italian Kingdom, immediately it began the construction of new "rioni" (the traditional Rome districts). This involved the densification of peripheral parts of the historical city hat mostly were characterized by religious buildings, vine yards, villas and gardens.