Seismic vulnerability of historical artifacts: experimental test and analytical formulation through evolutionary algorithm

Historical artifacts represent a crucial aspect for societies and therefore it should be preserved from natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes). Artifacts such as statues are often made by fragile material, while present irregular shapes and different slenderness levels. Furthermore, a complete and accurate dynamic characterization can be achieved through the use of complex models. Indeed, friction is a crucial aspect which affects the behaviour of historical artefacts during dynamic excitations. Several studies investigated how friction is influenced from other parameters, such as artefact’s geometry and motion characteristics. The paper investigates the relationship between the input velocity and dynamic friction coefficient through experimental dynamic test performed by shaking table. High and low velocity conditions are analyzed for free standing cylindrical concrete sample. Three input time histories with different maximum amplitude and predominant frequency are adopted to analyze various shaking conditions. The experimental campaign is aimed at determining the main factors which affect the dynamic friction while creating a consistent output dataset. Finite Element Models are implemented for modelling the dynamic behaviour of the artefact and then validate the obtained results