The Pirelli skyscraper is one of Italy’s most important engineering and architectural works of the last century. Commissioned by the Pirelli tire company, from which it takes its name, it was completed in the late 1960s. Under the direction of architect Giò Ponti, the project involved the collaboration of Pier Luigi Nervi and Arturo Danusso, two leading figures in Italian engineering.
Fig.1 Pirelli skyscraper, Milan.
After more than 60 years, a comprehensive health check of the building was needed. The company Moni2Bsafe was commissioned to perform the dynamic identification, aimed at obtaining information on the dynamic behavior of the structure to generate accurate and reliable calculation models. This identification was accomplished using accelerometers, devices that measure the accelerations (external vibrations) to which the building is subjected.
Fig. 2 left traditional accelerometer, right Wi-Fi accelerometer Moni2Bsafe
Numerous measurements were made to overcome the challenges of low ambient vibration and high electrical noise in the detection system. Through this analysis, it was possible to obtain with great accuracy the required parameters of both the traditional and the innovative Moni2Bsafe system. The results demonstrated the reliability of the system, highlighting in particular the excellent performance of the Wi-Fi accelerometers we produce, despite their low cost.
Fig. 3 background vibrations recorded by accelerometers
Fig. 4 background vibrations recorded by accelerometers
Thanks to these analyses, it was possible to derive all the fundamental dynamic parameters of the Pirelli skyscraper. These parameters were used to create a computational structural model to obtain accurate and reliable simulations.