Collapse of the clock tower in Finale Emilia after the May 2012 Emilia Romagna earthquake sequence: Numerical insight

Comprehensive FE numerical insight into Finale Emilia Castle behavior under 2012 Emilia Romagna seismic sequence: Damage causes and seismic vulnerability mitigation hypothesis

“…As a matter of fact, very generic indications for masonry castles are available [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] but a detailed methodology of approach is unfortunately still not regulated, also because each building presents a unique architectural plant, a common feature in such kind of structures. The present work can therefore be considered as one of the first advanced numerical assessments of a real case relying into a castle severely damaged by the earthquake, and aimed both at a detailed evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the structure, and at providing design indications for a correct reconstruction of the damaged parts of the building and for a proper mitigation of the seismic vulnerability.…”

Seismic Risk Assessment of Historic Masonry Towers: Comparison of Four Case Studies

“…Furthermore, the authors show that while simplified analyses can provide reasonable predictions of the towers' seismic risk, sophisticated analyses (i.e., able to predict the failure mechanisms and to assess the areas that undergo severe damages) are required in order to design proper retrofitting. The interest for the topic has been increased after the May 2012 Emilia Romagna (Italy) earthquake sequence; as an example, the behavior of the tower of Finale Emilia was studied by Acito et al (2014) to understand the causes of the collapse.…”

“…In the case of isolated masonry towers, damages are usually most severe at the base (as a result of a combination of bending and shear loads) although cracks along the whole height of the building have been observed. In some cases (Acito et al 2014), vertical shear cracks are observed during strong earthquakes thus showing that the damage evolution during a dynamic excitation plays a crucial role in reducing the 1 Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ.…”

Nonlinear response analysis of SDOF systems subjected to doublet earthquake ground motions: A case study on 2012 Varzaghan–Ahar events

“…Penna et al [5] studied the damage to old existing clay brick masonry buildings in the area affected by the 2012 Emilia earthquake ground motion sequences. The numerical analyses of Acito et al [6] provided a valuable picture on collapse of the clock tower in Finale Emilia after the 2012 Emilia Romagna earthquake sequence. Damaged structures due to the mainshock generally cannot be repaired due to the short intervals of time and consequently strong aftershocks may increase the damage degree of the structures, which should be considered in post-earthquake performance evaluation procedure.…”