Abstract
Today’s society is sensitive to the architectural heritage conservation. This implies to perform works to maintain these buildings and to assure their structural security. In the last years, the structural analysis of historical masonry constructions has experienced a great progress, thanks to the use of techniques based on the study of the dynamic properties of building structures. In this context, changes on the structural health state of a building are one of the elements that can be assessed considering changes on their dynamic properties. This is useful to evaluate the effectiveness of structural interventions on this kind of buildings by analysing these properties before and after it. This paper focuses on the Jura Chapel, in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain). This chapel is part of San Juan de los Caballeros Church and is dated from the 15th century. In 2015 and after the identification of some structural damages in the chapel vault, an intervention was initiated to improve its structural behaviour and to recover its original appearance. The present work reports the evaluation of the effects that this intervention has on the structural health state of the building, using nondestructive techniques based on ambient vibration tests (AVT) and Operational Modal Analysis (OMA). The AVT were performed for both prerestored and restored states and under environmental loads. A discussion about the validity of doing AVT from extrados when a vault presents disconnection between ribs and web is included in the paper. As a result, the first five natural frequency values have increased while the corresponding mode shapes have not changed significantly. This proves a structural health improvement caused by the repairing process without changing the original behaviour of the structure. This work shows OMA capabilities for evaluating the effectiveness of intervention works on the health state of a historical masonry structure.
Highlights
Nowadays, it is a fact that modern societies are greatly interested in preserving architectural heritage, one of the most important links between ancient and current generations
E main purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of an intervention carried out in 2015 on the structural health of the Jura Chapel by using nondestructive techniques based on ambient vibration tests and Operational Modal Analysis
The identification of the mode shapes will be useful in order to check if the intervention has significantly changed the original structural behaviour. e corresponding experimental campaigns were initially projected to be done on the extrados of the chapel vault. is is the most common way to take this kind of measurements in vaults [16], due mainly to two reasons: first, the accessibility is usually easier and auxiliary equipment such as scaffolds or lifting platforms are not necessary; second, some vault intradoses count on decoration, which could be damaged during the fixing of the accelerometers
Summary
It is a fact that modern societies are greatly interested in preserving architectural heritage, one of the most important links between ancient and current generations. OMA applications for evaluating structural interventions in historical buildings are more limited: from 2011 to 2013, the control of the intervention carried out in the area of the Roman eatre of Cadiz (Spain) was done by means of ambient vibration tests [11]; in 2012, Osmancikli et al [12] studied the effects of the restoration of the belltower of Hagia Sophia Church in Trabzon (Turkey); likewise, in 2014, Çalık et al [13] presented the evaluation of the restoration process of the masonry vault of Kuçuk Fatih Mosque, located in Trabzon In all these cases, the effects of the restorations were evaluated by comparing the dynamic characteristics before and after the repairing of the buildings and using OMA.
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