Earthquake Response of Historic Buildings at Lefkas Island

Abstract

This paper deals with the earthquake response of the historic traditional buildings of Lefkas Island, Greece. These structures have up to four storeys and are located in the central area of the Lefkas town. The main characteristic of these buildings is their dual bearing system, which consist of a spatial timber multi-storey system and a single-storey masonry wall one, respectively. The first multi-storey wooden system possesses in elevation various diagonal trusses that are infilled by bricks with lime mortar, while at the top of the building there is spatially connected a tiled wooden truss roof. During the strong earthquake at Lefkas Island (August 14, 2003), the seismic behaviour of the above-mentioned buildings was very good, since only damages that can be repaired (without total collapse) have been appeared such partial collapse of the masonry wall sat ground floor and various cracks near to masonry openings. On the contrary, at the rest floors the timber multi-storey frames did not suffer damage, but many bricks cracked and fell out of planes. In this article, an analytical investigation of the earthquake response of such historic buildings is took place, in order to explain their seismic damage due the above-mentioned strong earthquake.