Post-Breakage Vibration Frequency Analysis of In-Service Pedestrian Laminated Glass Modular Units

The vibration performance of pedestrian structures has attracted the attention of several studies, especially with respect to unfavourable operational conditions or possible damage scenarios. Specific vibration comfort levels must be commonly satisfied in addition to basic safety requirements, depending on the class of use, the structural typology and the materials involved. Careful consideration could be thus needed at the design stage (in terms of serviceability and ultimate limit state requirements), but also during the service life of a given pedestrian system. As for structural health monitoring purposes, early damage detection and maintenance interventions on constructed facilities, vibration frequency estimates are also known to represent a preliminary but rather important diagnostic parameter. In this paper, the attention is focused on the post-breakage vibration analysis of in-service triple laminated glass (LG) modular units that are part of a case-study indoor walkway in Italy. On-site non-destructive experimental methods and dynamic identification techniques are used for the vibration performance assessment of a partially cracked LG panel (LGF), compared to an uncracked modular unit (LGU). Equivalent material properties are derived to account for the fractured glass layer, and compared with literature data for post-breakage calculations. The derivation of experimental dynamic parameters for the post-breakage mechanical characterization of the structural system is supported by finite element (FE) numerical models and parametric frequency analyses.