Lorenzo Cantini1, and Maria Adelaide Parisi2
1) Contract Professor, Dept. ABC – Architecture, Built environment, Construction Engineering
Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)
e-mail: lorenzo.cantini@polimi.it
2) Associate Professor, Dept. ABC – Architecture, Built environment, Construction Engineering
Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)
e-mail: maria.parisi@polimi.it
Keywords: Seismic vulnerability; Masonry; Diagnostic techniques; Cultural heritage; methods of analysis.
Abstract. Public buildings, hosting large numbers of people, like museums, require, in Italy, the evaluation of their safety level against seismic risk. The authors carried out several studies for the definition of the mechanical response of masonry buildings used as museums on behalf of a project promoted by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage. A well-defined study methodology was applied following the so-called knowledge acquisition path indicated by the Ministry: collecting information from geotechnical, geometrical, historical and mechanical points of view, a satisfactory confidence level on the main data was reached; on this basis the buildings were analyzed according to different methods proposed in the national design codes and standards [1] [2] [3]. The investigation phase confirmed the usefulness of a diagnostic methodology that was developed in the academic environment after a long series of seismic events on the Italian territory [4]. The work presents a critical review of the main results obtained on four museums with different characteristics. The information achieved by a study procedure shared with other research groups working on other assets was used for the structural analysis: first, second and third analysis levels showed some limits and only a strategic combination provided a correct interpretation of the buildings vulnerability, as well as a comparative discussion of the procedure.