PSI - Issue 78

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 78 (2026) 1000–1007

XX ANIDIS Conference Seismic Vulnerability of Masonry Walls Damaged by Foundation Settlements: Development of Analytical Fragility Curves Marina Serpe a, *, Alberto Barontini b , Valentina Tomei a , Ernesto Grande a , Paulo B. Lourenço c , Maura Imbimbo a

a University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, via Gaetano di Biasio 43, Cassino 03043, Italy. b University “G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Viale Pindaro 42, Pescara 65127, Italy. c University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, Av. da Universidade, Guimarães 4800-058, Portugal.

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of XX ANIDIS Conference organizers Keywords: seismic vulnerability; cumulative damage; differential settlement; fragility curves. The analyses show that even small differential settlements, on the order of a few millimetres, can trigger crack patterns that significantly reduce lateral load capacity and stiffness, altering failure mechanisms and increasing fragility. These results underscore the importance of incorporating settlement–seismic interaction in the assessment and retrofitting of URM buildings. Abstract Foundation settlements occur frequently in real structures and can substantially weaken a building’s earthquake resistance. Most studies in the literature either ignore settlements or treat them separately from seismic effects. This omission is especially critical for unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, which are inherently brittle and vulnerable when settlements and seismic forces combine. In this work, the authors analyse the influence of differential settlements on the seismic capacity of typical URM facades using nonlinear static (pushover) analyses. Settlement parameters (plan extent, magnitude, and vertical profile) are varied alongside key wall characteristics (opening percentage and layout, and diaphragm stiffness), covering a range of case studies that emphasize the role of each parameter. Nonlinear static analyses are used to derive cumulative fragility curves, quantifying the increase in seismic vulnerability due to prior damage.

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: marina.serpe1@unicas.it

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of XX ANIDIS Conference organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.12.128