Long term monitoring of the G. Meazza stadium in Milan from the first measurements to the permanent monitoring system installation

Since summer 2003 the Department of Mechanics of Politecnico di Milano is involved in the vibration monitoring of the G. Meazza stadium in Milan. The analysis began as some people living close to the stadium perceived high vibration levels during concerts. Starting from these first measurements it was decided to start measuring the grandstands vibration during the most important events through the whole year. The results of this first campaign pushed forward to the development of a permanent monitoring system of all the stadium structures. This system must be able to measure not just the vibration levels but also other static values pointing out any eventual critical situations. The design of an efficient system requires a deep knowledge of the structure dynamic behavior, and this was achieved by means of a traditional modal analysis performed on all the stadium stands by means of an inertial exciter. The set-up chosen for the monitoring system has been studied in order to be modular and capable of being expanded as not only dynamic data are needed to assess structural safety. Nowadays the first part of the permanent monitoring system has been installed, and data are collected 24h per day granting a continuous control of the structure health.