ABSTRACT
The seismic events that struck Italy have highlighted the great vulnerability of existing masonry buildings. This chapter presents the experimental campaign that consisted in performing slightly-destructive tests on rural masonry buildings damaged by the 2012 Emilia earthquake, in order to determine the mechanical parameters of masonry and its shear behavior. The strength parameters for existing masonries are quite complicated to be defined due to the great variability of materials and constructive techniques. The Emilia countryside, the social and economic development, is characterized by the presence of a large number of isolated buildings, which show similar features. The experimental campaign consisted in performing slightly-destructive tests on eight rural masonry buildings belonging to the Emilia Romagna region. The chapter describes the experimental procedure, based on the execution of shove tests in situ and laboratory splitting tests on masonry cores with inclined mortar joints seems to be very promising for the evaluation of the shear strength of masonry.
