Short-term evolution of dynamic characteristics of a RC building under seismic and ambient vibrations

Abstract

The post-earthquake evaluation of structural integrity is a critical point to be addressed in case of emergency situations triggered by the occurrence of seismic events. A valuable method that can provide important indices to experts performing this operation is the monitoring of structures with seismic sensors that record how the structure responds to earthquake ground motion. In the case of permanent monitoring systems, reliable information can be obtained by comparing the data recorded before, during and after the earthquake, and checking if any abnormal vibrations of the structure or dynamic parameter changes have occurred. The presented study analysed comparatively, for an 11-story reinforced concrete building, vibration data recorded before, during and after the October 28th, 2018 earthquake (MW = 5.5). Continuously recorded data was used to determine the hourly values of the fundamental frequency of the building. The short-term behaviour (72 hours) was assessed, highlighting the modal parameters variation during, before and after the earthquake. In addition, an analysis of the data recorded one and a half hours before the earthquake and one and a half hours after the earthquake provided useful information on the evolution of the building state and on how this “recovered” after the earthquake.