Struct-Stainability assessment of the Columna Capreoli A-Trusses of the San Lorenzo ad septimum monastery aula magna

Original methodologies are proposed for formulating and solving optimization design problems concerned with the hazard assessment of a hypothetical solid wood replacement of the restored columna-capreoli A-trusses of the Aula Magna “Alfonso Gambardella” of the ancient monastery complex of San Lorenzo ad Septimum in Aversa, currently hosting the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. The study addresses a twofold struct-stainability performance evaluation contemplating both the structural hazard originated from natural combined gravitational and dynamic actions, and the demand related to dynamics of anthropic/anthropogenic ecosystem consumption/transformation, in a scenario of short wood supply chain within the Piana Campana area. Both the contemplated hazard scenarios appear meaningful since: 1) the complex has suffered significant earthquake damage between 1456-1457, and 2) dedicated environmental studies by ISPRA/ARPAC elucidate a worrying condition of very high fragility for most of the lake, river and coastal ecosystems of the Piana Campana as well as an ‘endemic’ fragility condition for most of its territory. Encompassing both hazard perspectives, the optimization problems considered herein address the optimal choice between open- and closed-node solutions for the kingpost-strut A-trusses of the installation. Performance analyses have been carried out with the aid of an object-oriented in-house-developed multipurpose structural analysis code (MORES), employing finite-element formulations with a transversely isotropic structural model for wood based on a polytope strength criterion which has been calibrated from data made available from the military aeronautic industry and which has been suitably experimentally and numerically validated.