ABSTRACT
The approach for the seismic study of existing buildings is based on the individuation of the building's masonry category and on the choice of the appropriate mechanical parameters to perform reliable structural analysis. This chapter shows that the collection of experimental data available in literature about the mechanical properties of the most widespread ancient masonries on the Italian framework, that is stone masonries, solid bricks and tuff masonries. With the main purpose of upgrading the variation ranges of the mechanical characteristics and to eventually demonstrates new masonry typologies equipped with mechanical parameters, a project research financed by the National Civil Protection Agency. Some problems have been over-come, assigning the "right" masonry to each test on the basis of a qualitative reconnaissance of the masonry or re-treating, where possible, the original records to define a comparable mechanical quantity considering modern approaches to the problem.
