FE models for evaluating damages in churches hit by L'Aquila earthquake

The behavior of churches during an earthquake is very complex, mainly due to the peculiarities of the buildings, which usually were conceived more for pursuing stylistic aims rather than structural goals. On the other hand, churches are often the result of continuous stratifications generated during their life, which led to constructions characterized by heterogeneous parts working with different modalities. As a consequence, the observation of damages produced by earthquakes could represent a rare occasion for improving the knowledge about the structural behavior of these buildings. In this framing, the current paper deals with the interpretation of the vulnerabilities observed, after the 2009 seismic event, on a church belonging to the district of L'Aquila, the St. Gemma Church in Goriano Sicoli. In a first step a careful analysis of the damage revealed after the 2009 earthquake on similar churches belonging to the same regional area is provided. Then, a suitable FEM numerical model, able to reproduce the revealed damages and properly calibrated by means of Ambient Vibration Tests, is set up for the church under consideration, with the aim of providing a sophisticated tool for weighing up the most important phenomena of failures and to provide some information about the most appropriate retrofitting techniques to be adopted.