THE ROLE OF RESTORATION MORTARS IN THE EARTHQUAKE PROTECTION OF KAISARIANI MONASTERY

Monuments and historical buildings are degraded as time passes due to natural ageing, environmental factors, as well as natural phenomena such as earthquakes.Their conservation and restoration thus becomes crucial in order to preserve our cultural heritage.Repointing of monuments and historical buildings is perhaps the most usual conservation action, as it restores and ensures masonry continuity in a reversible manner.However, this is accomplished only if the restoration mortar applied fulfills compatibility and serviceability criteria.In the current study, the characterization of the historical mortars of the Kaisariani monastery was undertaken and six restoration mortars were selected from literature and examined in order to assess their compatibility with the historical structure of the Kaisariani Monastery in Greece.The restoration mortars were assessed regarding their compatibility with the structural materials of the Kaisariani Monastery, as well as their impact on the earthquake resistance of the structure.A new stochastic computational framework for earthquake resistant design of masonry structural systems, based on fragility analysis and artificial neural networks was applied for the assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the Kaisariani Monastery, for three different repairing scenarios, utilizing the results of the examined restoration mortars.The results showed that a variety of restoration mortar characteristics can be achieved, an important feature, which coupled with the results of the fragility analysis for the repairing scenarios, can be utilized for the selection of the optimum restoration mortar in terms of compatibility and serviceability.