Mechanical behaviour of post-medieval tuff masonry in the Naples area

The expertise of several researchers in the historical and physical-mechanical fields has combined to develop full-scale models of historical masonry walls in order to accurately represent post-medieval tuff masonry types found in the Naples area, southern Italy. The findings are reported in this paper. Compression tests performed under displacement controls were carried out on specimens to obtain the complete constitutive law of masonry material, which also includes the post peak softening branch. A theoretical formulation of the experimental constitutive curve of masonry is given as a function of parameters obtainable from testing. Knowledge of the complete constitutive law, normally superfluous for the analysis of masonry structures subjected to vertical loads alone, is an essential tool for analysing the seismic capacity of a slender masonry wall as it is closely related to the post-elastic behaviour of the structural material.