Damage Identification of Masonry Structures Under Seismic Excitation

In the present paper, a spectral based damage identification technique is addressed on historical masonry structures. The seismic behavior of a physical 1:5.5 scaled model of the church of the Fossanova Abbey (Italy) is investigated by means of numerical and experimental analyses. Aiming at defining the seismic vulnerability of such a structural typology a wide experimental campaign was carried out. The achieved experimental results lead to the definition of a refined FE model reproducing the dynamic behavior of the whole structural complex. Then, the central transversal three-central bays of the church, as it mostly influences the seismic vulnerability of the Abbey, was investigated in a more detail by means of a shaking table test on a 1:5.5 scaled physical model in the Laboratory of the Institute for Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in Skopje. In the present paper a brief review of the numerical activity related to the prediction of the shaking table test response of the model is first proposed. Then, the identification of frequency decay during collapse is performed through decomposition of the measured power spectral density matrix. Finally, the localization and evolution of damage in the structure is analyzed. The obtained results shown that a very good agreement is achieved between the experimental data and the predictive/interpretative numerical analyses.