Dynamic Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction for masonry towers: the case study of Carmine bell tower in Napoli

The research examines the effects of soil-structure interaction on the dynamic behavior of the historical towers, with reference to Carmine bell tower in Naples, damaged by the Sannio earthquake in 1456. The brickwork structure is 68m tall, endowed with direct foundations on a deformable deposit of man-made ground and alluvial sands, overlying volcanic tuff. The structural model was calibrated on existing data, the foundation and the geotechnical subsoil model were reconstructed according to recent investigations. The seismic action on the rock outcrop was defined, simulating the 1456 earthquake through natural records and synthetic signals. Soil-structure interaction was simulated by the uncoupled approach and the dynamic analyses on a full model including the soil, foundation and structural non-linear behavior, calibrated on the experimental data. The analyses results lead to the structural collapse, with the same effects reported in the Cronichles. In additions complex failure mechanisms occurred in the soil and in the foundation, which could not have been caught by the classical fixed base scheme.