Purpose of the course

Aim of the course is providing the instruments for understanding the response of masonry buildings to the external actions and to read and interpret the most common damage symptoms. The capability to read the built patrimony will be the basis for designing strengthening interventions aimed to structural safety and conservation.

The soil behaviour will be shortly described, in order to frame the topic of its interaction with the constructions.

Destructive and non-destructive diagnostic methods will be dealt with in addition to criteria for the project of knowledge aimed to the evaluation of the masonry quality.

 Contents

-          reading and interpreting the most common symptoms and causes of damage of masonry buildings;

-          reading the morphologic and static characteristics of the principle constructive elements;

-          response of masonry buildings to vertical actions;

-          uniaxial compressive test on masonry and its components;

-          time-dependent behaviour of ancient masonry;

-          response of masonry buildings to in-plane and out-of-plane horizontal actions;

-          Mohr Coulomb failure criterion;

-          triaxial compressive test;

-          triplet test;

-          project of the surveys for diagnosis:

-          sonic tests, single and double flat jack tests, inspections, sampling and laboratory characterization of materials

Course structure

The course will be articulated into ex-cathedra lectures with the presentation of case studies and exercises.

Assessment methods

Written test • multiple choice questions on the course topics, including the contents of the bibliography and the lessons

Elaborates evaluation • (group or individual) assessment of a reports prepared during tutorial activities

Optional oral examination • evaluation of the theoretical knowledge as an integration of the written test