Abstract
Introduction: The conservation and preservation of existing buildings, in particular public infrastructures, is currently a significant issue in Italy and Europe, considering their strategic role and the risk represented by human losses, management issues and also economic disruption in case of collapse. In this context, the interest in conservation is not restricted to monumental or artistical buildings but also includes the several buildings composing the Italian infrastructural heritage, which in many cases are made of reinforced concrete and show signs of ageing after half a century and more from their construction. Methods: On the basis of these premises, in the present paper, a preliminary investigation on an infrastructural case study located in Naples port is presented. Such a study is part of a research activity aimed at defining critical structural issues of the central administrative building of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority. Results: A system of high-sensitivity and low-cost MEMS acceleration sensors were installed on the structure, with the aim of investigating its dynamic behaviour. A Finite Element model of the building was created, including information about material properties and cross-section details from prior experimental activities. A model updating procedure was carried out, based on the dynamic data collected by the monitoring system and post-processed to estimate the fundamental frequencies. Conclusion: This has allowed highlighting the main features of the dynamic response of the building, and the critical role played by deformability of infill panels and floors on the modal properties of the structure.
Highlights
The conservation and preservation of existing buildings, in particular public infrastructures, is currently a significant issue in Italy and Europe, considering their strategic role and the risk represented by human losses, management issues and economic disruption in case of collapse.In this context, the interest in conservation is not restricted to monumental or artistical buildings and includes the several buildings composing the Italian infrastructural heritage, which in many cases are made of reinforced concrete and show signs of ageing after half a century and more from their construction
This has allowed highlighting the main features of the dynamic response of the building, and the critical role played by deformability of infill panels and floors on the modal properties of the structure
The Open Civil Engineering Journal, 2021, Volume 15 227 multiple sensors distributed throughout the structure and connected to a central processing unit by means of a wired communication infrastructure. This layout is widely used and able to provide a large quantity of data to be analysed continuously, low-cost options including independent Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometers appropriately placed can be valuable and flexible, either for detecting abnormal events which can occur during the normal functioning of the building, i.e., continuous monitoring, or for shorter experimental programmes aimed at investigating the modal characteristics of the investigated structure
Summary
The conservation and preservation of existing buildings, in particular public infrastructures, is currently a significant issue in Italy and Europe, considering their strategic role and the risk represented by human losses, management issues and economic disruption in case of collapse.In this context, the interest in conservation is not restricted to monumental or artistical buildings and includes the several buildings composing the Italian infrastructural heritage, which in many cases are made of reinforced concrete and show signs of ageing after half a century and more from their construction. The study has been developed by the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” within a wider activity contracted by the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority of Naples aimed at investigating the dynamic behaviour of the building, which in the past had been subjected to abnormal vibrations due to impact of large ships docking on the harbour embankments To this purpose, an explorative monitoring activity was carried out to evaluate the level of accelerations to which the building was subjected due to ambient excitations in order to define an accurate numerical model based on previous experimental investigations. The relevant effects of both infill walls and flexible orthotropic floor diaphragms are investigated through comparison of an appropriate numerical model output with the experimental data
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