ALBERT

Description: Site response in urban areas is influenced by the presence of buildings and their interactions with the soil. The simplified dynamic response of buildings, and especially their fundamental period of vibration, can be determined by empirical characterization. However, a large variability is observed between buildings located at different sites, even if they belong to the same building typology. Our study focuses on the impact of the main characteristics of buildings (i.e., the construction materials) and soil (i.e., rigid or soft), and thus soil-structure interaction, on the structural response of buildings. For this purpose, the main characteristics of 312 buildings (constructed of reinforced concrete, unreinforced masonry or mixed materials) and their associated foundation soils were collected from different surveys in southern and northern Italy and published in an open-access database called FRIBAS (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6505442). It contains a total of 37 parameters, such as different structural and geometrical characteristics of the building (e.g., construction material, number of floors, shape) and soil properties (e.g., outcropping geology). Moreover, the fundamental vibration periods of the buildings and soil were estimated using the Horizontal-to-Vertical spectral ratio from ambient vibration measurements. FRIBAS gave us the opportunity to investigate the influence of construction materials and soil types on building periods. Our results suggest that a general T-H relationship is not sufficient, but that it is necessary to develop building-site-specific T-H relationships. FRIBAS is a fully public database that allows the entire scientific community to analyze the influence of various building and soil properties on the dynamic behavior of buildings.

Description: FRIBAS database is an open access database (https:// doi. org/ 10. 5281/ zenodo. 65054 42) composed of the characteristics of 312 buildings (71 masonry, 237 reinforced concrete and 4 mixed types). It collects and harmonizes data from different surveys performed on buildings in the Basilicata and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions (Southern and Northeastern Italy, respectively). Each building is defined by 37 parameters related to the building and foundation soil characteristics. The building and soil fundamental periods were experimentally estimated based on ambient noise measurements. FRIBAS gave us the opportunity to study the influence of the main characteristics of buildings and the soil-building interaction effect to their structural response. In this study, we have used the FRIBAS dataset to investigate how the building period varies as a function of construction materials and soil types. Our results motivate the need of going beyond a ‘one-fits-all’ numerical period–height (T–H) relationship for generic building typologies provided by seismic codes, towards specific T–H relationships that account for both soil and building typologies.