Seismic behaviour of industrial masonry chimneys

This paper deals with the seismic behaviour of an unreinforced masonry chimney representative of the large number of chimneys currently in existence in many European areas which were built during the period of the industrial revolution. Maximum seismic intensity value that can be resisted in terms of peak ground acceleration and failure mode are the main goals. A 3D finite element model capable of reproducing cracking and crushing phenomena have been used in a non-linear analysis in order to obtain lateral displacements, crack pattern and failure mode for this type of construction. Earthquakes artificially generated for a low to moderate seismic intensity area from the response spectrum proposed by the codes have been tested on the structure obtaining failure mode, maximum stresses and displacements. Subsequently, the accelerograms generated were scaled until non-failure earthquakes were obtained.