Dynamic Behavior of the Palazzo Lombardia Tower: Comparison of Numerical Models and Experimental Results

he Palazzo Lombardia Tower, located at the heart of the city of Milan, Italy, recently was completed. At 161.30 m high, the new building is currently the tallest in Italy and one of the most prominent features of the city skyline for many years to come. Given the strategic importance and the strong impact of the new building, it was decided to perform a series of dynamic excitation tests, with special emphasis on the Tower. Thus, it was possible to estimate its basic modal features and then compare them to the numerical simulation predictions provided by the same finite-element (FE) numerical analysis used for design. This offered the chance to start an important and interesting model-updating procedure, taking advantage of both the actual material properties measured during the construction phase and dynamic measurements, the latter having added significant insight to the structural behavior. The mechanical engineering department of the Polytechnic University of Milan was in charge of the design and execution of the tests. Professor F. Mola served as the structural designer of the building and also supervised the design and interpretation of the tests, together with the staff of ECSD Engineering and CAD DataConsult, who created the analytical model of the complete structure to be used as a benchmark for the experimental results. The tests provided an experimental validation of the modeling assumptions accuracy and of the robustness and reliability of the FE model in predicting the structural behavior. Moreover, the experimental validation of the FE model of the Tower was meant as the initial part of an intended continuous monitoring activity. This paper describes the main structural features of the Palazzo Lombardia Tower and those of the experimental tests. Also, the FE model is presented and the comparison between the numerically predicted and the experimentally derived modal properties is discussed.