Dynamic behavior of a Mediterranean natural stone under tensile loading

Historical buildings are important structures commonly occurring in Mediterranean cities. The behavior of their constituent materials under high dynamic loads is fundamental to investigate the vulnerability of such structures under extreme dynamic events. The main aim of our investigation was to study the effect of high dynamic loading conditions on a classical porous natural stone from the Naples area, namely yellow tuff, used in hundreds of historical buildings and monuments in Naples and other Mediterranean cities. Hence, dynamic characterization was performed through high strain-rate failure tensile tests. A wide range of strain-rates was investigated, from 10(-5) s(-1) to 50 s(-1). The obtained data were processed to obtain stress-strain relationships at different strain-rate levels. The results reveal that Neapolitan yellow tuff presents a significantly strain-rate sensitive behavior, exhibiting dynamic tensile strength increasing with strain-rate, up to about three times that from quasi-static conditions in the case of very high strain-rates. Dynamic increase factors (DIFs) vs. strain-rate curves for tensile failure stress were also evaluated and discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.