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Ambient vibration measurements on monuments in the Medieval City of Rhodes, Greece

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Abstract

Vulnerability assessment of masonry historical monuments relies on the accurate assessment of their real structural and foundation conditions, which is always a very difficult and challenging task to determine. Ambient noise measurements are among the non-destructive field techniques, which can provide useful information regarding the structural integrity, the dynamic response characteristics of the structure and the dynamic properties of the foundation soil. The performance-based design approach developed in the research project PERPETUATE for the vulnerability assessment of monuments uses all this information in a cost efficient way. Moreover, validation of the whole methodology has been made on several monuments in the Medieval City of Rhodes. To illustrate the use of ambient noise measurements in the frame of PERPETUATE methodology, we performed a number of ambient vibrations measurements on three selected monuments in the Medieval City of Rhodes (Greece) and the surrounding soil. The aim was to identify the dynamic characteristics of the selected structures and the dynamic properties of foundation-soil where these structures are founded. The Frequency Domain Decomposition technique is adopted for ambient modal identification using ARTeMIS software and the continuous wavelet transformation for calculating the wavelet energy to compare it with the pathology pattern of a typical masonry wall. The dynamic properties of the foundation soil, in terms of shear-wave velocity, were also explored using the Spatial Autocorrelation Coefficient method. The goal of the ambient noise measurement performed herein is to better simulate the complex masonry structures in view of estimating their vulnerability using the PERPETUATE methodology and support rehabilitation decisions. The improvement of the initial numerical model using the results of the ambient vibrations measurements illustrates the usefulness of the approach and provides some helpful practical guidelines.

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Acknowledgments

The study presented in the paper were supported by the EU, under PERPETUATE European Project (PERformance-based aPproach to Earthquake proTection of cUlturAlheriTage in European and Mediterranean countries, FP7-Theme ENV.2009.3.2.1.1-ENVIRONMENT, Grant agreement \(\hbox {n}^{\circ }\): 244229). The authors are grateful to “Foundation for the Financial Administration and Realization of Archaeological Projects” of Ministry of Cultures of Greece, and to Dr Georgios Ntellas and Emmanuil Kallioudakis for supporting and providing data for the monuments of the Medieval City of Rhodes in Greece. The authors would like also to thank Evi Riga for valuable help in the in-situ measurements and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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Correspondence to Anna Karatzetzou.

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Darius M. Seyedi was formerly at BRGM, (now at ANDRA) Orléans, France.

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Karatzetzou, A., Negulescu, C., Manakou, M. et al. Ambient vibration measurements on monuments in the Medieval City of Rhodes, Greece. Bull Earthquake Eng 13, 331–345 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-014-9649-2

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