2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

Senj is a medieval town located on the Eastern coast of Kvarner. In addition to war destruction, Senj has been hit by strong earthquakes throughout history. The appearance of significant earthquakes in this area is not surprising because according to the seismic area classification of the Republic of Croatia, Senj is located in an area where the horizontal peak ground acceleration is 0,24g. Within the historic city center of Senj, some stone masonry buildings date back to the 12th century. Those two facts present a good reason for selecting Senj as a representative research area.
This research aims to determine the seismic resistance of stone masonry buildings with timber floors. In order to evaluate the overall behavior and seismic resistance of existing buildings, it is first necessary to visually establish the characteristics of stone masonry buildings (typology of buildings). The connection of timber floors with stone masonry walls needs to be addressed as well. It needs to be investigated if the timber floor forms a diaphragm or if it is flexible in the plane because it significantly affects the behavior of masonry buildings during an earthquake.
Visual inspection of buildings indicated that most of the buildings were built with mixed materials (which is a result of fast renovation after great destruction in World War II), which implies the use of stone blocks, brick parts, and mortar. In almost all stone masonry buildings, a tie system is present as a kind of reinforcement that ensures the integrity of the buildings. These components will be present and their influence related to the seismic performance of buildings.