Seismic vulnerability of historical structures

Ancient masonry structures are particularly vulnerable to dynamic actions, especially seismic actions. This paper presents a contribution to the safety assessment of historical masonry churches located in seismic areas. The approach proposed here aims at a simple, fast, and low cost procedure based on a simplified geometric approach for immediate screening of the large number of churches at risk. The objective is to evaluate the possibility of adopting simple indexes related to geometrical data as a first (and very fast) screening technique to define priority for further studies.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SAPIENS 33935-99European-Indian Economic Cross Cultural -programme ALA/95/23/2003/077- 122