Seismic Performance Assessment of a Stone Masonry Building in the Historic Core of Dubrovnik

The city of Dubrovnik is located in a seismically very active region, with the reference peak ground accelerations exceeding 0.3g for 475 years return period earthquakes. Therefore, it is essential to perform seismic assessment of the existing buildings and retrofit them accordingly. This paper presents the results of the seismic performance assessment of a typical residential stone masonry building in the historic core of the city. The building is about 400 years old and of very high cultural value as the Old City of Dubrovnik has been under the protection of UNESCO since 1979. The vulnerability of this type of buildings is high which has been demonstrated in the earthquakes that have struck the city throughout history. The seismic assessment of a stone masonry building is a very challenging task. Therefore, a complex numerical model was created in Abaqus software to perform a detailed seismic performance evaluation. Used material model considers the complex stress state and yielding of the material with degradation of mechanical parameters under cyclic loading. Nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed using time-histories that were carefully selected for the site. To process the results and conduct verification with parameters commonly quantified in seismic standards, a Python script was created so relevant response quantities are determined. Finally, some conclusions regarding critical elements of the structure are highlighted.