Carlos National Theatre
Seismic vulnerability assessment of the building ensemble comprising the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, in Lisbon, carried out for GEPECTROFA as part of the preparation of a future seismic strengthening project for one of Portugal's most significant cultural monuments.
Concept & Challenge
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos comprises four main buildings with distinct constructive typologies like stone masonry, brick masonry, reinforced concrete, steel, and timber, the result of successive interventions that made a uniform assessment approach impossible. The challenge was to produce a rigorous and comparable seismic diagnosis for the entire ensemble, identifying the zones of damage concentration that govern the global behaviour of each building.
Approach & Methodology
The assessment was based on three non-linear numerical models using the Equivalent Frame Method (3Muri®), whose subdivision was determined by dynamic identification testing, which allowed the mechanical properties of the masonry to be calibrated by comparing numerical and experimental frequencies. In-plane seismic verification was conducted through non-linear static analysis for three limit states, complemented by linear kinematic analysis for the identification of local mechanisms on each façade and floor.
Solution & Results
The assessment concluded that all buildings exhibit insufficient resistance to seismic action, with vulnerability concentrated in specific elements. The report produced a spatial prioritisation of structural weaknesses with differentiated strengthening recommendations for each building, directly informing the development of the future seismic strengthening project.
In a building layered with centuries of history and accumulated matter, assessing seismic vulnerability is, above all, learning to read what each generation left behind and what the earthquake will find.
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