A SIMPLIFIED APPROACH FOR THE SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT: APPLICATION TO A MASONRY BUILDING IN NAPLES

The seismic vulnerability assessment of a case study of masonry building located in Naples was performed by means of the first level of assessment (LV1) provided by the Italian Guidelines on Cultural Heritage. According to a large scale evaluation, this level is based on a simplified model of the global seismic behavior of masonry buildings. The results obtained by using the earlier version of the guidelines, implemented on line by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC) are expressed in terms of a sole seismic safety index summarizing the comparison between seismic demand and capacity. Instead, the updated version of the rules provides two safety indices, one in terms of ground acceleration (factor of acceleration) directly comparable with the earlier index and the other in terms of return period, which adds useful information about the lifetime of the building. The results of the two versions were largely discussed and compared and a good agreement was revealed with reference to the detection of the weaker direction and the prevailing failure mechanism. However, some differences were found about the calculation of the base shear capacity and the corresponding ground acceleration.