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Corresponding Author

Anwar, Ahmed

Subject Area

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Modal testing is widely used as a fast and effective tool for structural health monitoring and damage assessment. Old masonry barrages are characterized with their massive and rigid nature. Nevertheless, the complex material configurations make it difficult to be investigated and/or evaluated. This paper examined the ability and the constrains of using modal testing technique with masonry arches considering sensitivity and practicality. Masonry arches of a semi-circular shape with different stiffness and damage conditions were prepared and examined experimentally under static and dynamic tests. The dynamic characteristics for each condition were evaluated. A sound arch was degraded in two manners, the first by decreasing its thickness, while the other by applying severe crack experimentally. Additionally, Numerical investigation was conducted to simulate arches with different damage severities. Finite Element Model was calibrated using the material properties results obtained experimentally. The results of numerical study were compared with the experimental results to investigate the practicality and sensitivity of this technique. It has been noticed that the modal analysis testing can be used with masonry arches to determine any degradation occurred in arches. It is however; found that the technique was not powerful in identifying the reason behind this degradation. Moreover, correlation between the change in fundamental natural frequency and the corresponding reduction in stiffness was investigated.

Keywords

Masonry Arches; Modal Testing; Damage detection; Static Loading; Dynamic Testing

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