Code-based seismic safety-checking of historical masonry buildings

This investigation compares the guidelines for seismic safety-checking with a limited number of records provided in the current and upcoming versions of Eurocode 8 (EN 1998-1:2005 and prEN 1998-1:2023) for the case of historical masonry buildings. A case study representative of stiff monumental buildings is modelled in OpenSees using 3D macroelements to account for in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) effects. Ten suites of motions are defined according to the version of the code, the seismological constraints accounted for in the preselection process, the range of matching in the period domain, and the matching strategy, either uniform scaling or spectral matching. Additionally, selection is performed in soil profiles B and C to examine the effect of soil amplification. Non-linear time-history analyses are conducted, and the distribution of numerical data is analysed for each set. Based on the numerical findings of this research, some important observations regarding the consideration of seismological constraints, matching range, and the minimum number of records are provided for the selection and scaling of earthquake motions for seismic evaluation of historical masonry buildings.