structural analysis of private buildings in Modena province damaged by earthquake

FOPPOLI MORETTA e ASSOCIATI carried out structural analysis of many public and private buildings located close to the epicentre of the Emilia earthquakes of 20th and 29th May 2012. Building typology was varied from mansions to single family dwellings, from warehouses to apartment blocks. Thus, analysis concerned this wide range of structural as well as material variety, from masonry to reinforced concrete.

The modern buildings from the 1970s and 80s were constructed using vertical supporting structures with reinforced concrete elements. Supporting walls were made from semi-solid bricks, with vertical hollows. The technique used in laying is in line with traditional wall building. Shear testing of masonry was carried out through non-conventional flat jack technique called FJ-SCT method (Flat Jack - Shear Compression Test).

Reinforced concrete structures were tested as follows:

• visual inspection;
• magneto-metric analysis for rebars;
• measurement of carbonatation depth using fenoftalein;
• rebound testing for the estimation of concrete strength;
• ultrasound velocity measurements;
• compression strength through combined SonReb testing;
• coring sampling and compression testing of concrete cores;
• reinforced bar analysis and traction testing.

These investigations created the fundamental support for the drawing up of the restoration project and the seismic assessment of damaged buildings.