Issue 45

F. Brandão et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 45 (2018) 14-32; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.45.02 18 fine the five Brazilian seismic zones presented in Fig. 3, with reference to the values of the ground accelerations for each zone as: Zone 0 – a g < 0.025 g ; Zone 1 – 0.025 g < a g ≤ 0.05 g ; Zone 2 – 0.05 g < a g ≤ 0.10 g ; Zone 3 – 0.10 g < a g < 0.15 g ; and Zone 4 – a g > 0.15 g . Analyzing the seismic zones shown in Fig. 3, it is possible to observe that a large part of Brazil is covered by Zone 0, that causes a maximum ground acceleration of 0.025 g , that is, the soil moves at a maximum speed of about 0.245 m/s 2 . How- ever, in some North-Eastern states, such as Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, most of their territories are located in Zone 1, that has the maximum ground acceleration of 0.05 g that corresponds to 0.490 m/s 2 . T HE N OSSA S ENHORA DAS D ORES C HURCH he Nossa Senhora das Dores Church (Fig. 4) is one of the most important historical buildings of the Sobral histor- ic center, near the Acaraú River. Sobral is a city 345 years old, that keeps one of the largest and most important historic city centers of Brazil, with over around 1,200 properties registered by National Historic and Artistic Herit- age Institute (IPHAN). This structure was chosen as case study being representative of the studies that should be performed on the Brazilian heritage constructions. Figure 4 : View of the Nossa Senhora das Dores Church with its location in Sobral City and location of Sobral city in Ceará State. Figure 5 : Schematic view of geometry of the Nossa Senhora das Dores Church, where (1) is the Lateral nave, (2) is the Lateral Tower, (3) is the office, (4) is the Altar-Mor, (5) is the Central Nave and (6) is the Coro-Alto. T