Estimation of Seismic Behaviour of Historic Masonry Structures by Shake Table Testing

Abstract

Evaluation of seismic stability and behavior of structures involves several important aspects and activities that should be considered. Among these is testing of scaled models on a shaking table. Within several complex international projects related to the problem of seismic stability of historic masonry structures, a number of tests were performed on the 5DOF shake table in the Dynamic Testing Laboratory of the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in Skopje. Most of these tests were aimed at experimental verification of new proposed methodologies for repair and seismic strengthening by testing models of representative existing prototype structures for specific types of monuments. Some models were tested mainly for the purpose of assessing the vulnerability of a particular monument or to estimate the intensity of a past earthquake as a reason for existing damage. The applied testing procedure, the obtained experimental results and the main conclusions on selected and characteristic historic masonry structure models tested in the past, as well as recently tested models of the stone masonry arch bridge -the Old Bridge in Mostar and the ancient dry masonry Protiron structure in Split will be presented.