Seismic Rehabilitation of Masonry Heritage Structures with Base-Isolation and FRP Laminates – A Case Study Comparison

The cultural and historical significance of architectural heritage buildings demands intrinsic considerations regarding appropriate conservation measures that need to be undertaken in order to restore or maintain their historical values. In this paper two contemporary seismic strengthening measures with varying degrees of invasiveness and strengthening efficiency are employed in a case study numerical simulation on a typical neo-renaissance masonry heritage building. The use of fibre reinforced polymer composites and the implementation of base-isolation was considered in the study in order to achieve the desired, code-based seismic protection levels. Non-linear static analyses with incremental increases in levels of seismic intensities were conducted on mathematical models of the fixed-base, FRP-strengthened and base-isolated variants of the structure. The comparison of results based on static pushover analyses for various ranges of seismic intensity was presented, while each strengthening measure was assessed in terms of its efficiency.