Ambient vibration tests of XV century Renaissance Palace after 2012 Emilia earthquake in Northern Italy

This paper focuses on the dynamic behaviour of Mirandola City Hall (a XV century Renaissance Palace) that was severely damaged during May 2012 Emilia earthquake in Northern Italy. Experimental investigations have been carried out on this monumental building. Firstly, detailed investigations have been carried out to identify the identification of the geometry of the main constructional parts as well as the mechanical features of the constituting materials of the palace. Then, Ambient Vibration Tests (AVT) have been applied, for the detection of the main dynamic features. Three output-only identification methods have been compared: (i) the Frequency Domain Decomposition, (ii) the Random Decrement (RD) and the (iii) Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA). The modal parameters of the Palace were difficult to be identified due to the severe structural damage; however the two bending modes in the perpendicular directions were identified. The comparison of the three experimental techniques showed a good agreement confirming the reliability of the three identification methods.