Investigation of the Seismic Response of a Byzantine Church and Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Proposed Interventions

The seismic response of the twelfth-century Byzantine church of Panhagia Krina in Chios, Greece, is investigated in this paper. The numerical model implements all the details of the geometry of the structure and is validated by comparison of the dynamic characteristics with ambient vibration measurements. Time-history elastic analyses are performed for selective seismic motions, chosen to comply with the expected ground motion in the area. The results show that the linear elastic approach can predict the existing damage quite accurately and explain the collapses that occurred during the 1881 earthquake. The effectiveness of several interventions is also examined; in some cases, cracks were introduced in the model to overcome the limitations of the elastic analysis. The proposed interventions enhance the structure but they cannot eliminate the possibility of severe damage or even local collapses during future seismic events. This is because there are inherent problems in the structure, e.g., the large size of the dome of the main church compared with the overall size of the structure and the structurally weak system of support of this dome.