Study of materials behavior in a monumental vault strengthened by a carbon net in a mineral matrix subjected to seismic influence

Abstract

The application of the elasto-plastic material model known as the Barcelona Model (BM) for numerical assessment of a historical vault subjected to earthquake sequence is presented in this work. As a case study, part of a masonry vault erected in Southern Poland in the 12th century was chosen. For the study purposes, a 3D finite element model (FEM) of the vault was prepared using the ABAQUS/Standard software program. The essential details of the structure geometry were taken from the 3D scan of the vault. The first variant of the masonry vault was the structure without any strengthening, whereas the second variant was with strengthening system realized by application on composite materials, i.e., the carbon fiber reinforced cementitious matrix (C-FRCM). The results of the dynamic analysis revealed that an evident nonlinear performance of the masonry materials of the vault in both cases was detected for both FE models of the structure. The analysis proved that the foreshock–mainshock–aftershock sequence caused substantial damages in structural parts of the masonry vault. The distribution of plastic strains and damages allowed assessment of the impact of the full seismic sequence on the masonry vault. In the case of the unstrengthen vault the level of cracking and stiffness loss reached 90%. In the case of the vault strengthened with the FRCM system the tensile damage level was significantly lower. It did not exceed 30%. In addition, the first plastic zone of the unstrengthened masonry structural elements of the vault became visible after the foreshock.