Dynamic characterization of shallow foundations with full-scale tests

Aldo Madaschi, Alessandro Gajo, Marco Molinari, Daniele Zonta

Abstract

This work provides a detailed description of the full-scale experimental tests performed on the dynamic behavior of a shallow foundation under intermediate strains. A wind tower supported by the foundation was submitted to a snap-off test inducing free oscillations of non-negligible amplitude in the whole system. The motion induced was measured with a digital camera, seismometers and accelerometers attached to the surrounding ground surface and to the wind tower. An innovative interpretation technique based on optimizing a few meaningful parameters obtained from the recorded time histories was necessitated by the heterogeneity of the data collected and the accuracy needed to deduce the behavior of the foundation plinth. The analyses showed that the rotational stiffness of the foundation plinth was roughly 10 times greater than that of the base joint, which in turn was about 1 order of magnitude greater than that of the wind tower.

Keywords

Foundation Vibration, Experimental Measurements, Small-Strain Behavior, Dynamic Measurements

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IMEKO-TC4-GEO-2016-37.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC4 - Measurement of Electrical Quantities

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