Author

MANOS, G.; SOULIS, V.; FELEKIDOU, O.; KARAMITSIOS, N.; KOTOULAS, L.
Lab. of Strength of Materials+Structures, Dept. Civil Eng., Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract

The dynamic and earthquake response of Post-Byzantine stone masonry churches, which were subjected to a damaging earthquake sequence in the region of Western Macedonia in Greece, is studied. The roof system of the first two churches combines masonry cylindrical vaults and spherical domes with arches and pendatives that support a wooden roof. Apart from these two old churches, the behavior of another much older church, which represents a much simpler orthogonal structural formation, is also examined. This is a two-story church with a simple orthogonal vault and a wooden roof that belongs to an 11th century monastic-complex. This later church is studied together with the introduction of a base isolation system. The performance of each of these three distinct structures is studied under the combination of the gravitational and seismic forces; the latter are applied either through their spectral definition or by an assumed time-history. The predicted performance of the various structural elements, located at the peripheral masonry walls or at the masonry vaulting system, is then checked by applying an assumed Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope that is believed to represent the limit-state stone-masonry behaviour. The seismic damage, due to a relatively recent strong earthquake sequence, is utilized to validate the realism of the numerical predictions.

Key words
Earthquake Behavior, Byzantine Churches, Stone Masonry