Renato S. Olivito¹, Carmelo Scuro¹, Rosamaria Codispoti¹, and Saverio Porzio¹

1)  Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria,
Via Ponte P. Bucci (cubo 39B), 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
e-mail: {renato.olivito, carmelo.scuro, rosamaria.codispoti, saverio.porzio}@unical.it

Keywords: Masonry buildings, Seismic assessment, Equivalent frame model, Pushover analysis,
Spandrel strength.

Abstract. The masonry ancient buildings were analyzed under the action of earthquakes using structural calculation software based on equivalent frames method or to macro-elements method. In these types of approaches, the structures are divided in horizontal elements, so called spandrel elements, and vertical elements that identify the masonry walls. These two elements are interconnected among them by rigid nodes. The aim of this paper is to analysed a structure with the different schematization methods of masonry wall underlining the structural importance of the spandrel elements, in order to obtain a critical comparison of them. Two different structural calculation software were used in order to implement the different methods named above, and an existing masonry building has been analyzed.
In order to analyze the importance of the spandrel in masonry construction, an existing case study was investigated. It is an ancient palace of the city of Bisignano, a small town in the province of Cosenza in Calabria. The building is in the Giudecca district near the church of San Bartolomeo and it is called “Trentacapilli Palace”.
The building was analyzed using two different software, 3Muri and VEM. The numerical results obtained highlights as a choosing of a schematization from another is of crucial importance as it may compromise the outcome of the final verification of the structure analyzed.