Comportamento meccanico di solai di edifici storici realizzati con profilati in acciaio e voltine in mattoni

In the present study the mechanical behavior of floors made of steel beams supporting almost flat masonry vaults is analyzed. Such a structural system was quite frequently employed since the second half of the XIX century. In the literature only few studies on masonry-steel composite floors are available and moreover the problem of the interaction between the vaults and the steel profiles was not faced. In the strengthening of historic buildings that present floors made using this construction system it is necessary to correctly quantify the effectiveness of the composite system so to avoid, in many cases, onerous not indispensable interventions. A specific very interesting example of floor was considered, concerning nailed composite steel beams and solid brick vaults, which are present in the building “ex Ospedale Militare” in Trieste erected around 1840 by the Hapsburg Military Administration. An experimental test carried out on a portion of floor of this building allowed to determine the main mechanical parameters needed to build a nonlinear numerical model able to simulate the actual behavior of the system. With this tool it was possible to evidence the actual interaction between vault and steel beams and to quantify its effectiveness in terms of flexural stiffness and load capacity, considering different ratios between the width of floor and the length of steel beams.