Abstract
Despite significant research advances on the seismic response analysis, there is still an urgent need for validation of numerical simulation methods for prediction of earthquake response and damage. In this respect, seismic monitoring networks and proper modelling can further support validation studies, allowing more realistic simulations of what earthquakes can produce. This paper discusses the seismic response of the “Pietro Capuzi” school in Visso, a village located in the Marche region (Italy) that was severely damaged by the 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquake sequence. The school was a two-story masonry structure founded on simple enlargements of its load-bearing walls, partially embedded in the alluvial loose soils of the Nera river. The structure was monitored as a strategic building by the Italian Seismic Observatory of Structures (OSS), which provided acceleration records under both ambient noise and the three mainshocks of the seismic sequence. The evolution of the damage pattern following each one of the three mainshocks was provided by on-site survey integrated by OSS data. Data on the dynamic soil properties was available from the seismic microzonation study of the Visso village and proved useful in the development of a reliable geotechnical model of the subsoil. The equivalent frame (EF) approach was adopted to simulate the nonlinear response of the school building through both fixed-base and compliant-base models, to assess the likely influence of soil–structure interaction on the building performance. The ambient noise records allowed for an accurate calibration of the soil–structure model. The seismic response of the masonry building to the whole sequence of the three mainshocks was then simulated by nonlinear time history analyses by using the horizontal accelerations recorded at the underground floor as input motions. Numerical results are validated against the evidence on structural response in terms of both incremental damage and global shear force–displacement relationships. The comparisons are satisfactory, corroborating the reliability of the compliant-base approach as applied to the EF model and its computational efficiency to simulate the soil–foundation–structure interaction in the case of masonry buildings.
Highlights
Seismic events that hit Italy in the last 20 years produced dramatic social and economic consequences, and major data to understand various engineering issues (Dolce and Di Bucci 2017)
This paper presents a numerical simulation and validation study for a real masonry structure monitored by OSS through permanent accelerometers, which were able to record its motion under both weak-to-strong earthquakes and ambient noise (ReLUIS 2018a; Cattari et al 2019a)
This approach was applied to the case-study building by firstly approximating the structure through a SDOF system with viscous damping ratio ζ = 3% and dynamic properties associated with the first vibration modes of the FB configuration, as resulting from the modal analysis
Summary
Seismic events that hit Italy in the last 20 years produced dramatic social and economic consequences, and major data to understand various engineering issues (Dolce and Di Bucci 2017). During 2016 and 2017, the historical seismicity of Italy was further marked by a sequence of strong earthquakes that hit the central regions of the country, causing once again heavy damages and loss of lives Those earthquakes struck numerous historical urban centres, involving an area even larger than those mentioned above and producing cumulative damage to unreinforced masonry (URM) constructions (Di Ludovico et al 2019). A significant amount of accurate data collected during and after seismic events on real buildings, in terms of seismic motion, structural features and soil properties, were useful to minimize the uncertainties involved in the validation process of predictive models Within this context, since 1993 the Italian Department of Civil Protection through the OSS (acronym of the Italian name “Osservatorio Sismico delle Strutture”) installed a network of permanent seismic monitoring systems on public buildings, bridges and dams (Dolce et al 2017), those located in highly hazardous areas. The scope of such a comparison was twofold: (1) to assess the capability of equivalent frame (EF) models to reproduce the observed cumulative damage, and (2) to evaluate the potential impact of soil–structure interaction on nonlinear behaviour and damage of the URM buildings through CB models
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