Reliability of dynamic identification techniques connected to structural monitoring of monumental buildings

The impossibility of adjusting the monumental buildings to the protection levels adopted for newly conceived buildings brings about the need to accept lower safety levels. In such case, the potentiality of dynamic monitoring by means of periodic checks on the dynamic characteristics of the structure (its own frequencies and vibration modes) would allow, at least theoretically, one to check globally that there are no changes to the boundary conditions that would further diminish the structural safety level. To this end, the dynamic analyses of a masonry triumphal arch of a medium-sized church are reported in this paper. The dynamic identification campaign was carried out at the ELSA Laboratory, studying the in-plane behaviour of the structure in undamaged and damaged conditions. The dynamic identification campaign, which lasted more than 6 months, allowed us to test the reliability of different acquisition systems, of different typologies of excitation and above all of evaluating the influence of environmental conditions on the dynamic parameters that may be identified. Indeed, variation of the environmental factors (e.g. temperature, insolation, humidity) may determine a change of the structure's own frequencies that must be taken into consideration just so as to be able to recognize the variations that may be correlated to a structural change due to the presence of damage. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

254 pags:, 44 figs.The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and their implications for early universe and particle physics, from the MeV to the Planck scale. However, the range of potential cosmological applications of gravitational-wave observations extends well beyond these two objectives. This publication presents a summary of the state of the art in LISA cosmology, theory and methods, and identifies new opportunities to use gravitational-wave observations by LISA to probe the universe.This work is partly supported by: A.G. Leventis Foundation; Academy of Finland Grants 328958 and 345070; Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, Scholarship ID: FZO 059-1/2018-2019; Amaldi Research Center funded by the MIUR program “Dipartimento di Eccellenza” (CUP: B81I18001170001); ASI Grants No. 2016-24-H.0 and No. 2016-24-H.1-2018; Atracción de Talento Grant 2019-T1/TIC-15784; Atracción de Talento contract no. 2019-T1/TIC-13177 granted by the Comunidad de Madrid; Ayuda ‘Beatriz Galindo Senior’ by the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Universidades’, Grant BG20/00228; Basque Government Grant (IT-979-16); Belgian Francqui Foundation; Centre national d’Etudes spatiales; Ben Gurion University Kreitman Fellowship, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (IASH) & Council for Higher Education (CHE) Excellence Fellowship Program for International Postdoctoral Researchers; Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa Program SEV-2016-0597; CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya; Cluster of Excellence “Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter” (PRISMA? EXC 2118/1); Comunidad de Madrid, Contrato de Atracción de Talento 2017-T1/TIC-5520; Czech Science Foundation GAČR, Grant No. 21-16583M; Delta ITP consortium; Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-SC0008541, DE-SC0009919 and DESC0019195; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Project ID 438947057; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany’s Excellence Strategy - EXC 2121 Quantum Universe - 390833306; European Structural and Investment Funds and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Project CoGraDS - CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15 003/0000437); European Union’s H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant “GRavity from Astrophysical to Microscopic Scales” (Grant No. GRAMS-815673); European Union’s H2020 ERC, Starting Grant Agreement No. DarkGRA-757480; European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement 860881 (ITN HIDDeN); European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme Grant No. 796961, “AxiBAU” (K.S.); European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Council grant 724659 MassiveCosmo ERC-2016-COG; FCT through national funds (PTDC/FIS-PAR/31938/2017) and through project “BEYLA – BEYond LAmbda” with Ref. Number PTDC/FIS-AST/0054/2021; FEDER-Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI-01-0145- FEDER-031938) and research Grants UIDB/04434/2020 and UIDP/04434/2020; Fondation CFM pour la Recherche in France; Foundation for Education and European Culture in Greece; French ANR project MMUniverse (ANR-19-CE31-0020); FRIA Grant No.1.E.070.19F of the Belgian Fund for Research, F.R. S.-FNRS Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through Contract No. DL 57/2016/CP1364/ CT0001; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through Grants UIDB/04434/2020, UIDP/04434/ 2020, PTDC/FIS-OUT/29048/2017, CERN/FIS-PAR/0037/2019 and “CosmoTests – Cosmological tests of gravity theories beyond General Relativity” CEECIND/00017/2018; Generalitat Valenciana Grant PROMETEO/2021/083; Grant No. 758792, project GEODESI; Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Colleges and Universities; Grants-in-Aid for JSPS Overseas Research Fellow (No. 201960698); I?D Grant PID2020-118159GB-C41 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; INFN iniziativa specifica TEONGRAV; Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 2562/20); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Nos. 20H01899 and 20H05853; IFT Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa Grant SEV-2; Kavli Foundation and its founder Fred Kavli; Minerva Foundation; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion Grant PID2020-113644GB-I00; NASA Grant 80NSSC19K0318; NASA Hubble Fellowship grants No. HST-HF2-51452.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute with NASA contract NAS5-26555; Netherlands Organisation for Science and Research (NWO) Grant Number 680-91-119; new faculty seed start-up grant of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the Core Research Grant CRG/2018/002200 of the Science and Engineering; NSF Grants PHY-1820675, PHY-2006645 and PHY-2011997; Polish National Science Center Grant 2018/31/D/ ST2/02048; Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange within the Polish Returns Programme under Agreement PPN/PPO/2020/1/00013/U/00001; Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) under Grant No. 28359; Ramón y Cajal Fellowship contract RYC-2017-23493; Research Project PGC2018-094773-B-C32 [MINECO-FEDER]; Research Project PGC2018-094773-B-C32 [MINECO-FEDER]; ROMFORSK Grant Project. No. 302640; Royal Society Grant URF/R1/180009 and ERC StG 949572: SHADE; Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF) of Georgia (Grant FR/18-1462); Simons Foundation/SFARI 560536; SNSF Ambizione grant; SNSF professorship Grant (No. 170547); Spanish MINECO’s “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa” Programme Grants SEV-2016- 0597 and PID2019-110058GB-C22; Spanish Ministry MCIU/AEI/FEDER Grant (PGC2018-094626-BC21); Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-115845GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033); Spanish Proyectos de I?D via Grant PGC2018-096646-A-I00; STFC Consolidated Grant ST/T000732/1; STFC Consolidated Grants ST/P000762/1 and ST/T000791/1; STFC Grant ST/ S000550/1; STFC Grant ST/T000813/1; STFC Grants ST/P000762/1 and ST/T000791/1; STFC under the research Grant ST/P000258/1; Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), project The Non-Gaussian Universe and Cosmological Symmetries, Project Number: 200020-178787; Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship Grants No. 170547 and No. 191957; SwissMap National Center for Competence in Research; “The Dark Universe: A Synergic Multi-messenger Approach” Number 2017X7X85K under the MIUR program PRIN 2017; UK Space Agency; UKSA Flagship Project, Euclid.Peer reviewe

VAULT-FILL INTERACTION IN MASONRY BRIDGES: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH - 2: DYNAMICS

This paper is the continuation of a companion paper presented in this conference by the same authors. It is first demonstrated that scaled models may reproduce the dynamic response of masonry bridges if proper scaling criteria are set. The comparison of the natural frequencies of the real bridge to the ones expected on the basis of structural models may provide important information on the inner structure of the bridge, which is often known only approximately or is unknown at all and is only postulated. A series of laboratory tests are discussed to identify and quantify the contributions to the natural modes, shapes and frequencies of the different elements of a masonry bridge. 1:4 prototypes have been used; dynamic tests have been performed at different levels of load-induced damage and in different settings: bare arch and arch + fill. It is showed that the structural elements, and their effective contribution to the load bearing structure, may actually be identified by means of dynamic identification techniques. Damages, mainly due to material degradation or overload, instead, may be identified on the basis of dynamic testing only if their extent is large enough to be detected also visuall

VAULT-FILL INTERACTION IN MASONRY BRIDGES: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH - 1: STATICS

Masonry bridges are usually considered as an arch to which non-structural elements (spandrels, fill, etc.) are added. Experimental and theoretical evidences show, instead, that spandrels and fill take part in the load carrying mechanism accounting for a large part of the load carrying capacity. If this is neglected, the structural models may turn out to be unreliable and their outcomes strongly non-correlated with the real response of the bridge. In this paper, the arch-fil and arch-spanrel interaction is demonstrated and quantified by means of experimental tests on reduced scale models set on proper scaling rules. Woth deep and shallow arches are considered

Calibration and Reliability of the Rebound (Schmidt) Hammer Test

One of the most widely spread techniques to estimate the compressive strength of concrete is the rebound hammer test, also known as Schmidt Hammer test. In spite of a large number of scientific works trying to calibrate the test, to identify the parameters affecting its results and to estimate its reliability, the original Schmidt curve is still provided by the producers along with the hammer and is used in Structural Engineering Applications. This paper discussed an extensive research, and application, of this technique to a large number of cubes provided by the Laboratory for Building Materials of the University of Genoa, Italy, showing that several phenomena strongly affect the test: moisture content, maturity, stress state among the others. Strength estimates may differ as much as 70% if these parameters are not taken into account. Besides, several in situ investigations on existing buildings were affected by a large dispersion of data, so that we should conclude that the Rebound Hammer is unable of giving a reliable estimate of the concrete strength. This is probably due to the very limited area of the material on which the test is performed that allows also small local inhomogeneity to affect quite strongly the test. Therefore, the rebound hammer seems to be useless in the estimation of concrete compressive strength, being only a rough tool for estimating material homogeneity inside a specific concrete typ

LA SOSTENIBILITÀ DELL’USO DEL SUOLO, LA VAS E LA GESTIONE DEL TERRITORIO, CON ALCUNI RIFERIMENTI ALLA REGIONE VENETO ED ALLA SICILIA

Sommario Il problema nazionale, ma soprattutto meridionale ed in particolare della Regione Sicilia, della necessità di un approccio olistico, etico, civico ed interdisciplinare alla formazione di piani e programmi d’interesse pubblico, porta alla necessità di una formazione complessa scientifica ed umanistica. In particolare è strategico intersecare l’atteggiamento formativo ed applicativo delle progettualità ingegneristico-architettoniche con quello dei sistemi di conoscenza, valutazione sociale, economica ed ambientale, delle strutture organizzative e della programmazione economica. Occorrono competenze interdisciplinari con riferimento alle problematiche degli indicatori territoriali, ambientali e socio-economici per la costruzione del processo di conoscenza, interpretazione, valutazione delle condizioni esistenti e per la costruzione degli scenari di sviluppo locale sostenibile e la loro verifica di compatibilità nel sistema di pianificazione e programmazione multilivello. E’ un sistema complesso, articolato su tre livelli principali, la cui cerniera nell’integrazione fra pianificazione fisica del territorio e programmazione strategica socio-economica, dovrà essere una provincia regionale, più efficace ed efficiente, ridando forza e qualità al governo pubblico e partecipato del territorio. Occorre riorganizzare il processo di pianificazione-programmazione-attuazione e monitoraggio del sistema pubblico multilivello ed il sistema di conoscenza-interpretazione-valutazione-partecipazione-decisione-attuazione, proponendo un modello operativo di riferimento. Definire indicatori territoriali, ambientali e socio-economici per la costruzione di un DataWarehouse, comprendente un Sistema Informativo Territoriale Regionale (SITR), un Sistema di Supporto alle Decisioni (DSS) ed una procedura, definita mediante un PERT, che possa connettere le diverse fasi, con tempi ed obiettivi di riferimento, nodi critici di copianificazione, verifica e concertazione, d’informazione e partecipazione democratica. Occorrerà: Organizzare e gestire SIT, uffici di piano e programmazione con nuclei operativi interdisciplinari, supportati dalla consulenza esterna di centri di ricerca universitari ed associazioni pubbliche e private, d’ausilio alle politiche sia nelle fasi interattive di problem setting che in quelle di problem solving. Definire il ruolo centrale regionale nel sistema integrato multilivello nazionale ed internazionale, per la formazione dei quadri strutturali e strategici interni ed esterni. Stabilire le procedure di copianificazione dei sistemi urbani locali ai fini della qualità e sostenibilità insediativa delle comunità locali con la garanzia della forma strutturale di medio e lungo periodo fornita dalla formazione d’Unioni di Comuni. Tutelare le forme di pianificazione del paesaggio, sulla base degli indirizzi regionali, in coerenza con i valori culturali, materiali ed immateriali locali e con i mosaici colturali e delle naturalità, espresse e potenziali. Predisporre progetti integrati locali e d’area vasta, all’interno di scenari programmati nel piano territoriale strategico, in coerenza con gli indirizzi programmatori ed i quadri strutturali e strategici regionali ed internazionali. Definire la Valutazione di Sostenibilità territoriale ed ambientale, Valsat o Vas, riferita agli indicatori ambientali d’area vasta e di contesto, all’efficacia ed efficienza del sistema degli interventi previsti, ai criteri di sostenibilità territoriale, ambientale e socio-economica e della qualità territoriale-urbanistica ed ambientale-paesaggistica. Approccio Prevalente: Metodologic

Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and their implications for early universe and particle physics, from the MeV to the Planck scale. However, the range of potential cosmological applications of gravitational wave observations extends well beyond these two objectives. This publication presents a summary of the state of the art in LISA cosmology, theory and methods, and identifies new opportunities to use gravitational wave observations by LISA to probe the universe

Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and their implications for early universe and particle physics, from the MeV to the Planck scale. However, the range of potential cosmological applications of gravitational wave observations extends well beyond these two objectives. This publication presents a summary of the state of the art in LISA cosmology, theory and methods, and identifies new opportunities to use gravitational wave observations by LISA to probe the universe