Preservation and restoration of historical structures is a complex matter, which involves a deep understanding in different fields such as: history, architecture, structural analysis. Moreover, the great variety of ancient masonry in particular requires case-by-case methodologies of analysis, which are to be tailored to any case studies by experienced researchers who can tackle the matter in an interdisciplinary way.
The proposed research focuses attention on the issues of mechanical modelling of masonry, in order to investigate the structural behaviour of constructions of HISTORICAL and ARCHAELOGICAL interest. The models currently used in literature cannot be used regardless the particular constructional typology to be analysed. With reference to monumental buildings, in particular, the need for using refined modelling methodologies and a plurality of computational techniques seems unavoidable. Within this context, the research covers different levels of investigations, ranging from the mechanical modelling of materials to the structural analysis and to experimental validation. Some significant case studies are also proposed.
The research program involve experts who will study these problems from different perspectives. It will be divided into four major sections (Work-Packages), each with specific targets. 1) MECHANICAL MODELLING of masonry, focusing on masonry materials and related constitutive aspects treated using non-standard multiscale approaches. 2) NUMERICAL IMPLEMENTATION and SIMULATION oriented to develop specific procedures for the structural analysis, taking advantage of the defined computational and conceptual tools. 3) EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES devoted to the validation of the proposed models, with particular care to the design of proper materials for restoration 4) CASE STUDIES related to monumental structures for investigating their actual mechanical behaviour, with particular reference to seismic safety assessment.
