Abstract:
This article presents the main concepts and the application of the
discrete element method (DEM) for evaluating the seismic performance
of historical buildings. Furthermore, the out-of-plane behavior
of an adobe church with thick walls, in which the morphology of the
cross-section can have an influence on the response, was evaluated
by the DEM. The performance of rigid and deformable blocks models
was compared, and the sensitivity of the numerical model to the
variation of critical parameters was investigated. The results allowed
the identification of the most vulnerable elements and a proposal of
recommendations for reducing the seismic vulnerability.