Through long-term monitoring, modal parameters identified in-situ can provide important information about the safety state of civil buildings and infrastructures. Unfortunately, structures are subjected to changing environmental conditions that can mask variations in the dynamic properties caused by damage and, therefore, lead to an incorrect condition assessment. The quantification of the influence of environmental conditions on modal parameters is a crucial step to eliminate their interference in a safety evaluation. Under current state-of-the-art considerations, this step is still an open challenge because environmental variables are time-dependent non-uniform quantities that have different influences on structural systems depending on the predominant material. In this paper, the effects of ambient temperature and humidity on the dynamic properties of earthen constructions are investi...

Las construcciones históricas exigen una vigilancia constante porque los peligros antropogénicos (por ejemplo, el uso, la contaminación o las vibraciones del tráfico) y naturales o ambientales (por ejemplo, los cambios ambientales o los terremotos) pueden poner en peligro su existencia y seguridad. En particular, en la región andina de Sudamérica, las construcciones históricas de tierra requieren especial atención e investigación debido a la alta peligrosidad sísmica de la zona junto a la costa del Pacífico. La monitorización de la salud estructural (SHM) puede proporcionar información útil y en tiempo real sobre el estado de estos edificios. En SHM, la implementación de herramientas automáticas para la extracción de características de los parámetros modales es un paso crucial. Este artículo propone una metodología para la identificación automática de los parámetr...

This paper presents the application of long-term environmental and structural remote monitoring in two emblematic 16th-century adobe churches located in southern Peru. The paper starts by presenting details of the planning and installation processes of the monitoring systems and continues with a detailed discussion of the results of almost two years of continuous monitoring. As expected, due to the large thermal inertia of the adobe systems and size of the buildings, the results of the environmental monitoring indicated a non-uniform distribution of temperature and relative humidity inside the buildings, and an important attenuation of the internal conditions in comparison with the external ones. On the other hand, the structural monitoring results evidenced an annual cyclical behavior of the natural frequencies with an apparent correspondence with the changes in environmental conditions...

The analysis of the evolution of modal properties and its relationship with changes in environmental properties (i.e. ambient temperature and relative humidity) is of high importance since their effects along time can mask the influence of structural damage. While structural monitoring studies to assess the relationship between modal parameters and environmental conditions are abundantly available for modern materials constructions (i.e. concrete or steel), very few studies are reported for adobe buildings. The present paper focuses on the study of the short and long-term structural behavior of existing adobe buildings through the long-term monitoring of ambient vibration and environmental conditions. With this purpose, the paper describes in detail the case study of the San Pedro Apostol Church of Andahuaylillas located in Cusco, inside the Andean region of Peru, a 16th-century church c...

The shift of modal parameters induced by temperature and humidity effects may mask the changes of vibration properties caused by structural damage because the dynamic properties are often sensitive to changing environmental conditions. Furthermore, temperature and humidity are generally non-uniform and time-dependent variables, and therefore, their simple record in air or at a specific surface cannot be sufficient to obtain useful models to understand the relationship between the dynamic properties and environmental effects. The present paper aims at presenting preliminary findings in the task of quantifying the effects of environmental conditions (variations in temperature and humidity) on the dynamic properties of earthen constructions with a laboratory test campaign. The first stage of the research consisted on the analysis of a real structural system and for this three 1:1 scale adob...

La tierra ha sido un material de construcción tradicional para construir estructuras en muchos continentes diferentes. En particular, los edificios de adobe están ampliamente difundidos en Sudamérica, y en Perú donde forman parte de la identidad cultural de la nación. Hoy en día, el conocimiento de los edificios de adobe existentes está lejos de una comprensión completa del sistema constructivo y una monitorización de la salud estructural (SHM) puede cuantificar y reducir las incertidumbres sobre su comportamiento estructural sin causar daños a los edificios. En este proceso, es deseable la implementación de herramientas automáticas para la extracción de características de los parámetros modales. En particular, la automatización es importante porque, durante una monitorización a largo plazo, se registra una enorme cantidad de datos y la comprobación directa de los datos...

Constant survey of historical constructions is very important to ensure their conservation. In the case of ancient buildings, their use, the materials aging, vibrations, environmental effects (temperature, rain, snow) and seismic events are all possible causes of deterioration and damage. A continuous Structural Health Monitoring can provide useful information for automated condition evaluations of the health-state of historic buildings; however, it is known that the effects of environmental conditions such as the variation of temperature and humidity can make this assessment difficult. Therefore, continuous monitoring of environmental conditions and dynamic parameters is needed to develop suitable models to assess the current health-state. Additionally, historical structures could be located in a place where the harsh local conditions (viability, electricity, internet connection, etc.) ...