The seismic vulnerability of masonry chimneys is a critical research topic, and it has an important role in the preservation of such kind of structural type. Indeed, masonry chimneys have a very high seismic vulnerability and are sometimes located in high seismic hazard zones. Researches about this topic have become even more frequent in the last decades. However, the results are still limited, and further studies are needed. This paper aims to study the seismic behaviour of a 20th-century masonry chimney located in Spain, focusing on its ultimate behaviour. In particular, various FE pushover analyses have been carried out in Abaqus/CAE using a quite accurate 3D model of the chimney. The pushover analyses have been made along the four principal directions, and both G1 and G2 load distributions have been applied. The material properties have been chosen according to previous studies carried out on similar structures because no specific experimental data were available. The obtained capacity curves have been compared with each other, and the main weak points of the chimney have been pointed out. Finally, a sensitivity analysis has been done to better understand the influence of the viscosity parameter on the pushover results in terms of ultimate capacity and computational effort. The latter one is an input value of the Concrete Damage Plasticity model, an Abaqus built-in material model, widely used to represent the non-linear behaviour of masonry structures.
The seismic vulnerability of masonry towers is a critical research field and it has an important role in the preservation of worldwide conservation of such kind of masonry building. Indeed, masonry towers have a very high seismic vulnerability and are often located in high seismic hazard zones. Researches about this topic have become even more frequent in the last decades. However, the results about the seismic behaviour of the masonry towers are still limited and further researches are needed. This paper aims to study the value of the behaviour factor (usually called q-factor or R-factor) of ancient masonry tower-like structures. This parameter provides quantitative information about the ductility of the tower and it can be computed by the capacity curve of the structure. In particular, the pushover curve can be bilinearized, and the q-factor can be computed according to the equal dis-placement or equal energy rule. The bilinearization of the capacity curve implies the knowledge of the ultimate displacement, whose computation is not a trivial task for this kind of structures because the capacity curves usually computed for such structures are apparently infinite ductility curves and the ultimate displacement cannot be directly computed. Therefore, an innovative pushover method (called "manual" pushover) has been formulated and implemented in a Matlab® code to achieve the q-factor computation goal. The tower is modelled by a vertical cantilever beam with lumped plasticity and it is loaded by self-weight and a user-defined horizontal distributed load profile. The non-linearities are modelled by the Moment-Curvature diagram of the cross-section where the plasticity is lumped. These cross-sections are positioned along the height of the tower splitting it into parts as uniform as possible in material and geometry characteristics. It allows considering the influence of openings and irregularities. The capacity curve is built by curvature control; it is similar to a displacement control and it allows to
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