Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Historical Group of Buildings in Timisoara City

Earthquakes represent a risk for each city located in a seismic area, with a high level of uncertainties. Timisoara is the biggest city in Banat seismic area, which is the second most important seismic region in Romania. The seismicity of the area is characterised by shallow earthquakes of crustal type, whit small focal depths and a peak ground acceleration of 0.2g. Considering the fact that Timisoara was selected to be the European Capital of Culture for year 2021, there is highlighted the opportunity of creating the most probable seismic scenario in order to serve as knowledge base for the local authorities for the development of prevention and intervention strategic plans. Many of the cultural events that will happen starting with year 2021 will be hold in the historical areas of the city due to the specific atmosphere and character of the places. Previous studies in the filed have shown the fact that the bearing capacity of a historical building is different if the building is surrounding by other similar historical buildings than if it is isolated. That is why this paper studies the seismic vulnerability of an entire group of historical buildings, formed of 8 buildings with similar characteristics and from the same period of time. This paper has the aim of highlighting the influence of the adjacent buildings over the seismic vulnerability of historical buildings, using modern European methodologies. The understanding of the structural balance between the units that form an aggregate could provide important information for further modern technologies for consolidation and rehabilitation.