ABSTRACT
In recent years, the disastrous earthquakes occurred in Italy caused serious damage to the historical masonry heritage and in particular to churches. Following a macro-element approach, the current paper focuses on the seismic behaviour of masonry transversal arcades, in particular the ones in Gothic style, which represents a recurrent and valuable architectural system. The study is based on some evidences got from a previous study related to the Fossanova Abbey (Priverno, Italy). In particular, a parametric analysis is carried out, changing the influencing geometrical ratios, according to typical examples of Gothic architectural style present in Europe. The parametric study is aimed at defining the collapse seismic accelerations by means of limit analyses with a kinematic approach. The obtained results allow to draw interesting outcomes in terms of relationship between the adopted geometry and the seismic performance of the considered Gothic systems.
