Application of the partial safety concept for complex non-linear calculations through the example of Friedrichswerder Church in Berlin / Anwendung des Teilsicherheitskonzeptes für komplexe nichtlineare Berechnungen am Beispiel der Friedrichswerderschen Kirche in Berlin

Non-linear analysis of special structures is routine practice in every engineering design office. Current code provisions provide no sufficient regulations or clear procedures on how to use partial safety factors in non-linear analyses. The present paper introduces some specific problems of masonry structures from practice.
Limit state functions of vertically loaded masonry walls were investigated. A reliability study shows that the decisive case of verification can be obtained by considering a special combination of material parameters. The study also indicates the importance of considering a partial factor for the elastic modulus to account for stability failure.
This proposed procedure has been applied to a practical example, the Friedrichswerder Church. The stability of the church has been checked with many FEM models at the macro level.