Traditional masonry arches and domes with fictile tubules in mediterranean seismic areas: Advanced numerical models and experimentation

Archaeological discoveries made all over the Mediterranean area - highly prone to earthquakes - have highlighted the use of fictile tubules for the building of walls and domes in thermal baths and masonry kilns since the Roman Empire. Fictile tubules are cylindrical clay bricks with a hollow conformation that ensures lightness and provides thermal insulation for the structural element. This well serves the purposes of thermae and kilns, since heat dispersion affects their functionality. Fictile tubules were usually either embedded in mortar or assembled with a female-male coupling system. This paper investigates the behavior of structural elements employing such technology via experimental tests and numerical analyses. First, tubules and mortar are considered separately. The behavior of each element is investigated by performing compressive and three-point bending tests to define their mechanical properties. These are inserted into existing material models in the 3D FE software Abaqus. They are then calibrated in order to match the experimental tests. Second, the mechanical behavior of an elementary cell composed of tubules embedded in mortar is investigated. Tensile and compressive numerical tests are performed via Abaqus to derive the mechanical behavior of this homogenized material. Finally, linear and nonlinear static analyses are performed on an arch through the exploitation of the new homogenized material.