Seismic Out-of-Plane Assessment of Podesta Palace in Mantua (Italy)

The paper describes the seismic assessment of the Palazzo del Podestà in Mantua (Italy), hit by the Emilia earthquake (2012), focusing the attention on the activation of the out-of-plane response of the north-east façade on Piazza Broletto. In fact, even if the earthquake marginally hit Mantua, the façade highlighted its significant vulnerability mainly consequent to the lack of connection between the orthogonal walls and of tie-rods. Nonlinear kinematic analyses have been performed, referring to a macro-block model and considering both the original configuration and some possible strengthened ones. The results were coherent with the observed damage after the seismic event, highlighting in this way the reliability of the adopted modelling strategies and analysis method, and allowed to outline the most proper strengthening solution, able to minimize the impact on the monument and guarantee its preservation.