THE EFFECT OF SETTLEMENTS ON THE IN-PLANE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF MASONRY BUILDINGS

Unreinforced masonry buildings, particularly widespread in historic centers of Italian and European small and medium towns, are often susceptible of in-plane and/or out-of-plane failure mechanisms due to seismic actions. In particular, damages due to in-plane failure mechanisms are often further influenced by phenomena occurring at the level of soil. Among these, differential settlements, groundwater lowering, mining activities and collapse of natural cavities are the most dangerous ones. The occurrence of free-field settlements can lead to additional damages to buildings and could particularly affect their seismic vulnerability. For this reason, it is clear the importance of considering the influence of soil settlements on the seismic response of masonry buildings. The aim of the paper is, then, to investigate the influence of soil settlements on the response of masonry walls under seismic events. To this purpose, pushover analyses on masonry walls are carried out by considering different settlement profiles and different geometrical and structural characteristics of the masonry walls.