Experimental Analysis of the Torlonia Building in Avezzano, Italy
Giovanni Bongiovanni1, Giacomo Buffarini1, Paolo Clemente1, Fernando Saitta1,
Concetta Tripepi2
1 ENEA, Casaccia Research Centre, Via Anguillarese 301, 00123, Rome, Italy
giovanni.bongiovanni@enea.it
giacomo.buffarini@enea.it
paolo.clemente@enea.it
fernando.saitta@enea.it
2 ENEA, Bologna Research Centre, Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, 40129, Bologna, Italy
concetta.tripepi@enea.it
Abstract. Palazzo Torlonia in Avezzano (Italy) is a two-story confined masonry building, constructed according to the code issued after the devastating 1915 earthquake. That code provided concrete confining members around masonry walls and openings. Walls are made of clay bricks with gothic texture, whereas floor slabs are based on mixed concrete and hollow clay blocks. This paper reports the analysis and results of the experimental dynamic tests on the structure, did in year 2016, by means of 24 seismometers, placed at all floors on the structure in three different configurations. Ambient vibration was the excitation source.
Data were analyzed in time and frequency. In the first case the planar bidirectional motion of some points on the building were observed for a long time, to obtain initial information regarding the prevalent directions of motion. Analysis in frequency was preliminarily pursued by means of Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) and subsequently by the evaluation of the auto and cross Power Spectral Densities (PSDs). They show an energy content in the range 3-20 Hz, with many close peaks. Although the results presented in this paper are not conclusive and data will be investigated in more detail, in general they show the deformability of the floors, which cannot be considered as infinitely rigid in their plane, as is often done in structural analysis of buildings.
Keywords: Structural health monitoring, experimental modal analysis, confined masonry.
