Foppoli Moretta e Associati expands its activities in South America
28 August 2018
Following participation in the “Jornada de END en Patrimonio Cultural” in Argentina in October last year, and after the mission of Eng. Dario Foppoli to Ecuador in May—at the invitation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a lecturer in the course “Advancing Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Technologies for the Inspection of Civil and Industrial Structures”—the technical and scientific activities of Foppoli Moretta e Associati in South America continue.
In September, the firm will participate in the 11th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC 2018), one of the most important worldwide conference focused on the diagnostics and structural analysis of monumental heritage. This edition will be held in Cuzco, Peru. Dario Foppoli and Alessandro Armanasco have prepared a contribution entitled “Laboratory and in Situ Calibrations of New Flat Jack Method for Assessing Masonry Shear Characteristics”, which will be presented by Prof. Hernan Garcia from the University of Cuenca (Ecuador) and published in the conference proceedings.
The paper summarizes the results of both in situ and laboratory calibration tests carried out over the past three years by Foppoli Moretta and Associates, leading to the development of an innovative testing method aimed at assessing the shear mechanical properties of masonry. This technique allows for the determination of fundamental parameters necessary for the assessment of masonry under seismic loads, which currently cannot be measured directly on-site due to the high level of damage caused by existing testing methods. It has also been repeatedly observed that the data currently used (derived from standard tables) are largely underestimated, forcing designers to implement interventions that are not only costly but, in some cases, especially for monumental buildings, result in inappropriate modifications to the structural conception of the building itself.
The calibrations carried out have already demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed method, known as the Flat Jack - Shear Compression Test (FJ-SCT), on brick masonry up to three bricks thick. Foppoli Moretta and Associates is currently extending the research by applying the methodology to stone masonry and thicker walls.
