Seismic assessment of typical historical masonry churches in the Banat region, Romania - Part II

This work focuses on the built heritage in Romania, with particular attention to five Orthodox masonry churches located in the Banat region, whose structural configuration is characterized by a unique nave and a bell tower included into the main façade. In a companion paper the seismic numerical investigations of Romanian masonry churches according to the Romanian regulations is presented. In this paper, firstly, a seismic performance comparison of the five churches with simplified risk assessment methods is conducted. Then, the preliminary results of a case study, obtained with both a macro-elements approach and a FEM model, are illustrated and commented. The numerical results here discussed belong to on-going research campaign addressed to highlight the main characteristics of the seismic performance of the Romanian churches, also including the damage observed under seismic events, as well as to compare the results to each other.