Dynamic Monitoring of an Existing Reinforced Concrete Building in Naples Port Area

The conservation and preservation of existing buildings, in particular public infrastructures, is currently a significant issue in Italy and Europe, considering their strategic role and the risk represented by human losses, management issues and also economic disruption in case of collapse.

In this context, the interest in conservation is not restricted to monumental or artistical buildings but also includes the several buildings composing the Italian infrastructural heritage, which in many cases are made of reinforced concrete and show signs of ageing after half a century and more from their construction.

On the basis of these premises, in the present paper, a preliminary investigation on an infrastructural case study located in Naples port is presented. Such a study is part of a research activity aimed at defining critical structural issues of the central administrative building of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority.

A system of high-sensitivity and low-cost MEMS acceleration sensors were installed on the structure, with the aim of investigating its dynamic behaviour. A Finite Element model of the building was created, including information about material properties and cross-section details from prior experimental activities. A model updating procedure was carried out, based on the dynamic data collected by the monitoring system and post-processed to estimate the fundamental frequencies.

This has allowed highlighting the main features of the dynamic response of the building, and the critical role played by deformability of infill panels and floors on the modal properties of the structure.