Seismic assessment of masonry “Gaioleiros” buildings in Lisbon, Portugal

This paper presents a numerical study for the seismic assessment of a Portuguese building masonry typology - “Gaioleiro”. Numerical analysis was performed using a finite element model calibrated with experimental results obtained in 1:3 reduced scale tests carried out in the LNEC 3D shaking table. Non-linear dynamic analysis with time integration and pushover analysis are carried out. Using nonlinear dynamic analysis it was verified that the buildings of “gaioleiro” type with appropriate floor-wall connections are in the limit of their loading capacity. The pushover analyses performed in this study were incapable of simulating correctly the damage of the structure under seismic action.The authors are grateful to the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering for providing the experimental data for the shaking table tests. The present work is partly funded by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), through project POCI/ECM/61671/2004, "Seismic vulnerability reduction of old masonry buildings'' and PhD grant SFRH/BD/32190/2006