Experimental Dynamic Behavior of Historical Buildings at Scale Model: San Raymundo Church, Guatemala

Abstract

Guatemala has an enormous set of churches of colonial architecture dating from the fifteenth century. Many of these considered part of the National Cultural Patrimony. It is necessary to identify the dynamic characteristics of historic buildings, to determine the response of their structures and materials under strong seismic movements, for retrofit engineering purposes. At present this information of historical structures is very scarce. This study to the Church of San Raymundo, a colonial church that presented severe damage by the earthquake in Guatemala on February 4, 1976, is a first contribution to the implementation of the Sendai Framework Cultural Heritage and Architectural Patrimony Preservation initiatives in Guatemala. This study was carried out in the Seismology Laboratory of the Research Institute of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences (in³) of the Mariano Gálvez University of Guatemala. The model was built to scale 1:8.75, with dimensions 2.80 × 3.00 × 1.75 m. The model was instrumented with accelerometers and deformation sensors to record the behavior of the structure and was subjected to local earthquakes registered in the Seismological Service (in³), on a 3 m × 3 m bi-axial seismic simulator. Resulting in damage to the structure, the collapse of the dome and vault with the earthquake scaled from November 7, 2012 in the department of San Marcos, Guatemala. The obtained results allow evaluating and acquiring experience of the dynamic behavior of historical buildings and that said results are compared with those of the mathematical model for future studies of structures of similar characteristics.