Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
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Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; December 2006; v. 96; no. 6; p. 2457-2464; DOI: 10.1785/0120060015
© 2006 Seismological Society of America
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Buildings as a Seismic Source: Analysis of a Release Test at Bagnoli, Italy

Maria Rosaria Gallipoli1,2, Marco Mucciarelli1, Felice Ponzo1, Mauro Dolce1, Ezio D’Alema3 and Mariano Maistrello3

1 Department of Structures, Soil Dynamics and Engineering Geology (DiSGG)
University of Basilicata
85100 Potenza, Italy
 (M.R.G., M.M., F.P., M.D.)
2 Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA-CNR)
National Council of Researches
20133 Tito Scalo (PZ), Italy
 (M.R.G.)
3 National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)
85050 Milan, Italy
 (E.D., M.M.)

Taking advantage of a large displacement-release experiment on a two- story reinforced concrete building located in Bagnoli (Naples, Italy), we performed free-field measurements using 3D seismometers, accelerometers, and a 100-m-long vertical array. The ground motion was noticeable: near the building, the acceleration exceeded 5% g. At each measurement point, it was possible to recognize two source terms, due to the tested building and to the reaction structure. The two sources generated different wave trains. High-frequency accelerations propagated as Rayleigh waves, whereas 1–2 Hz waves carrying most of the displacement propagated only as body waves. The experiment lends further support to the hypothesis that buildings are able to modify substantially the free-field ground motion in their proximity: the peak ground acceleration we observed is the 20% of the ground acceleration required to produce a displacement on the building equal to the one imposed during the release test. We recognize, however, the difficulty of a realistic modeling of wave propagation in the topmost layer of a densely urbanized area.






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