Development of a diagnostic technique for civil structures based on the model update of dynamic parameters

Monitoring and diagnosis of civil structures has become a popular topic in the last years, especially through the use of non-invasive tests and techniques. Moreover, the spread of operational modal analysis, that exploit ambient excitations of structures to estimate their modal parameters, allowed to reduce the costs associated to the dynamic identification. In this paper, a technique for the diagnosis of common civil structures, such as residential buildings or warehouses, is presented in order to identify local stiffness decreases that can potentially be associated to structural failures. The technique has been tested on a real warehouse built in 1960 and the results have been analyzed demonstrating the effectiveness of the methodology.