Preliminary Assessment Of The Seismic Behaviour Of Giotto's Bell Tower In Florence. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Spinelli, Paolo; Salvatori, Luca; Lancellotta, Renato; Betti, Michele
• Is Part Of: International journal of architectural heritage. Volume 17:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Finite Element (FE) model -- heritage structure -- masonry bell tower -- modal updating -- nonlinear time-history analysis -- seismic behaviour -- Soil-Structure-Interaction (SSI); Architecture -- Conservation and restoration -- Periodicals; Historic buildings -- Periodicals; Historic preservation -- Planning -- Periodicals; 721.0288
• DOI: 10.1080/15583058.2022.2145527
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1558-3058

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The assessment of the static and dynamic behaviour of historic masonry towers, together with the development of proper preservation strategies, has attracted in recent decades the interest of a plethora of scholars. Most of the studies focus on the assessment of their seismic behaviour since their slenderness exposes them to the dynamic effects induced by medium-to-severe earthquakes. This paper, which is framed in this background, discusses on a preliminary identification of the seismic behaviour of Giotto's bell tower in Florence, one of the iconic masonry towers ever built in Italy. In the first part of this paper, a summary of the available information on this bell tower is provided. Next, a refined numerical model, built through the finite element technique, and based on a recent laser scanning survey, is reported and employed to investigate its seismic behaviour. The numerical model accounts (in a simplified way) for the soil-structure-interaction, and scaled natural accelerograms selected based on the Florence seismic hazard are considered to develop linear and nonlinear time-history analyses. The results allow an initial assessment of the seismic behaviour of Giotto's bell tower suggesting both future in-depth investigations and analyses, together with proper preservation strategies.