Dario Rinaldis

Recorded Motions of the 6 April 2009 Mw 6.3 L'Aquila, Italy, Earthquake and Implications for Building Structural Damage: Overview

The normal-faulting earthquake of 6 April 2009 in the Abruzzo Region of central Italy caused heavy losses of life and substantial damage to centuries-old buildings of significant cultural importance and to modern reinforced-concrete-framed buildings with hollow masonry infill walls. Although structural deficiencies were significant and widespread, the study of the characteristics of strong motion data from the heavily affected area indicated that the short duration of strong shaking may have spared many more damaged buildings from collapsing. It is recognized that, with this caveat of short-duration shaking, the infill walls may have played a very important role in preventing further deterioration or collapse of many buildings. It is concluded that better new or retrofit construction practices that include reinforced-concrete shear walls may prove helpful in reducing risks in such seismic areas of Italy, other Mediterranean countries, and even in United States, where there are large inventories of deficient structures.

Protection of a monumental building against traffic-induced vibrations

To preserve an ancient building in Rome against traffic-induced vibrations, an anti-vibration system was introduced under the paving of the near Lungotevere road. An experimental investigation was recently carried out by ENEA in order to analyse the traffic-induced vibrations in the basement of the building and the effectiveness of the intervention. Wave propagation in the soil around the building in presence of the anti-vibration paving was compared with that in absence of the anti-vibration paving. The study showed the importance of the taking into account the contribution of other structures in the area to the dynamic behaviour of the whole system.

Seismic hazard maps of Italy including site effects

The seismic hazard of Italy was mapped adopting multiple models of seismic sources, recurrence rates and attenuation relationships, and investigating the influence of site effects on assessing the earthquake hazard. This result was achieved by placing all the alternatives in a logic-tree diagram, and performing an uncertainty analysis of the main epistemic variables involved in probabilistic seismic hazard computations. Several ground motion parameters such as peak ground acceleration (PGA), velocity (PGV) and displacement (PGD), spectral accelerations at 0.2 and 1.0 s periods, and site intensities were computed. Maps of PGA and PGV values with a 10% chance of being exceeded in 50 years are shown as an illustration of the seismic hazard of Italy.

Experimental Seismic Analysis of a Historical Building

This article discusses seismic analysis of a historical building to predict the state of damage in case of earthquakes. A temporary array is first used to have a first glance at the dynamic properties of the building. Then a permanent array is installed and several events are recorded. The experimental results are compared with those obtained by means of a simplified finite element model that reproduces the complex nature of the building. The results obtained are very useful to predict where stresses could be concentrated and where cracks or damage could start under seismic actions. Such an analysis is very important both to identify areas in the structure particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and to plan an effective building retrofit program to resist seismic actions.

Design of Temporary and Permanent Arrays to Assess Dynamics Parameters in Historical and Monumental Buildings

In this paper some issues about the seismic monitoring of historical and monumental buildings are faced. The experimental analysis carried out on a earthquake damaged building is shown. On the basis of the experimental results obtained by means of temporary arrays, a permanent network was designed and installed, which recorded several seismic events.

Soil Liquefaction During the Emilia, 2012 Seismic Sequence: Investigation and Analysis

In the framework of a Project issued by the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) a Research Unit (RU) has been granted with the commitment to provide a link between the seismic shaking and the triggering of ground failures such as liquefaction. The main goals have regarded both the enlargement of the base of observables for a better constrain of the seismic hazard assessments and the analysis of the triggering and causative factors of permanent ground deformations. Nevertheless, when analyzing the non-linear soil response under which liquefaction occur, some insights into site-effects have been also provided, thus contributing to the general task of the site-specific hazard. The paper illustrates the analyses and investigations carried out within the aim of the project, some of them are still provisional due to the huge amount of data produced and the strong effort required to analyze all the matters related to the observed phenomena.

Dynamic Behavior of a Historical Building

Given the particular difficulty in classifying and defining the characteristics of the structural systems of historical buildings, especially when they are part of complex historical constructions, the vulnerability study efforts becomes significantly more difficult than the study of regular modern structural systems. Furthermore, old buildings may have been altered repeatedly over time, may be founded on older buildings that got buried over and could be connected one to the others. This will cause dynamic interactions with other buildings or sub-structures during an earthquake. Therefore, the particular architectural and structural history of each structure adds uncertainties in the assessment of its seismic vulnerability. In this paper the dynamic response of CEDRAV building, part of the historical centre of Cerreto di Spoleto (Italy), is analyzed, by means of the data recorded by several temporary deployments of velocimeters. The complexity in assessing seismic behavior of the historical built environments is pointed out and so the dynamic interaction with adjacent buildings.

Analysis of ground motion along a topographic relief: The cerreto di spoleto case-history (Central Italy)

5th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, COMPDYN 2015

Cerreto di Spoleto (Umbria‐Italy): Seismic amplification at the ENEA local array stations.

The Nerina valley, where Borgo Cerreto is located, is surrounded by the Apennine mount chain at the top of which lies the historical centre of Cerreto di Spoleto. The study is part of a research project aiming at analysing natural disasters and their impact on the Italian cultural heritage. Within the framework of this research project, local seismic records were analysed for both the carbonate ridge and the bordering alluvial valley. The choice of Cerreto di Spoleto as a test site derives from the analysis of Italian seismic hazard maps, obtained in terms of peak ground velocity and taking into account regional geology. The maps highlight the considerable seismic hazard which characterises the Apennine belt and its possible increase due to the effect of alluvial deposits. To this aim, ENEA installed in the 80s an accelerometric array (CODISMA up to 2000 and, in the following years, ETNA; for more detailed description see [1]. The 14 October event, was recorded both at the roof of CSM and at BCT stations...

Experimental Dynamic Analysis of Historic Monuments and Buildings

The earthquake effect on monumental heritage is a critical issue in areas of ancient civilisation. Monumental buildings require specific strengthening techniques, related to a clear understanding of all factors affecting its vulnerability.