Tilting tests for masonry structures: design and preliminary numerical modeling

Abstract

The observation of damages caused by past seismic events demonstrated the high vulnerability of masonry systems, which represent intrinsically diverse and complex structures with resistance to horizontal forces highly dependent on the capacity of ensuring a monolithic behaviour. In this framework, tilting tests represent a low-cost and effective strategy to obtain the ultimate shear and out-of-plane capacities of masonry structures. In this work, the design of a large tilting table facility is introduced. Moreover, a Finite Element micro-model numerical simulation is presented, which constitutes a preliminary validation of the modeling methodology adopted. With this aim, the methodology has been validated on experimental data from the literature. Failure mechanisms and collapse load factors are compared after performing a non-linear static analysis, being a suitable tool to simulate the progressive tilting process. Lastly, a sensitivity study is conducted with the aim to investigate and identify the parameters that influence the future tilting tests.