Structural damage detection of structures by vibrodyna forced vibration test

The techniques of dynamic identification of structural characteristics of buildings are success-fully employed since many years. On new constructions these techniques permit the study of the building response to low- or high-energy vibrations (i.e. to earthquakes) for a safe design, while on ancient/historical buildings they can be employed to monitor the healthiness of the construc-tion i.e. detect any damage repeating the tests during some years. In this work we present an innovative vibrodyne we have designed with the aim of produce a bi-directional excitation harmonic force controlled in amplitude and frequency. This machine is portable, economic, and is suitable for the use into ancient or delicate buildings. In this work we present the preliminary results of a series of tests carried out on an ancient and vast castle undergone to a very elaborated structural investigation. A very interesting com-parison between mechanical vibrodyne excitation vs. traditional impact hammer excitation has been worked out. This comparison between experimental vs. numerical data shows some illness from which the castle is suffering.