Last Advancements in the Diffuse Structural Health Monitoring of Masonry Buildings from the Experimental Testing of a Full-Scale Case Study Structure Subjected to Controlled Damage

The implementation of tailored Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems to historical masonry buildings can provide useful information for the assessment of their structural integrity during operating conditions. In this sense, vibration-based SHM systems are often employed to detect anomalies in the structural response of masonry structures at the global level, while strain-based SHM approaches are preferred for the detection of local disruptions. Nowadays, exploring the sensitivity of these two SHM approaches to structural damage of diverse nature when applied to masonry buildings is still an open research field. In addition, the scalability issue affecting traditional sensing technologies for strain monitoring is currently an unresolved aspect that often limits their large-scale deployment to masonry structures. To further address these challenges, this paper presents an experimental program involving the continuous monitoring of a full-scale masonry building prototype tested under controlled damage in real environmental conditions. Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) is adopted to perform the dynamic identification of the building mockup by processing vibration measurements collected before and after each damage phase from a network of high-sensitivity accelerometers mounted on the structure. Smart bricks, which represent a new class of strain sensors enabling the diffuse monitoring of masonry structures, are used for the first time in a real-world scenario to reveal changes in the structural integrity of the building mockup through the assessment of the modifications in their strain outputs. Preliminary results from the continuous monitoring of the building mockup are presented and discussed.