FEA for masonry structures and vibration-based model updating using NOSA-ITACA

NOSA-ITACA is a finite-element code developed by the Mechanics of Materials and Structures Laboratory of ISTI-CNR for the structural analysis of masonry constructions of historical interest via the constitutive equation of masonry-like materials. The latest improvements in the software allow applying model updating techniques to match experimentally measured frequencies in order to fine-tune calculation of the free parameters in the model. The numerical method is briefly presented and applied to two historical buildings in Lucca, the Church of San Francesco and the Clock Tower.