ANALYSIS OF DOME BRICK IN THE HISTORIC CENTRE OF LUZZI

Depth studies on masonry construction, historic buildings, has enable the emergence, over time, an extensive heritage of building techniques variously taken both in civil and religious building. Among these, there are the vaulted systems of particular importance used for create covers large areas. The study focuses on the structural characterization of the brick dome inside the Church of the Immaculate, in the historic town of Luzzi. The church, dating back to the sixteenth century, has a dome protected in the central nave by a lantern with wooden cover. At first, it was built with straws but it was rebuilt with brick after the earthquake of 1854 and the subsequent restoration. According to the approach of membrane, the dome is consider as a structure with thin thickness, devoid of bending and torsional stiffness, and in every point the efforts appear in the tangent plane. The stresses obtained by method of the Limit States required by Technical Standards for Construction, have allowed a direct confrontation with the limits consented by the same law. Upon completion of the work, it was carried out the characterization of micro representative samples taken from the masonry through a mineralogical-petrographic analysis effected by a scanning electron Constructive system, masonry, construction, vaulted system.microscope (SEM).