Experimental Campaign for Dynamic Characterization of a Laboratory-Scale Structure

Overview

This dataset accompanies the experimental campaign for the dynamic characterization of a laboratory-scale model of a four-story shear-type building. The testing was performed at ETH Zürich  under the collaboration of ETH Zürich and Politecnico di Milano. The dataset includes time-series data from impact and random excitation tests conducted using a six-degree-of-freedom hydraulic shaking table (hexapod). The full experimental setup, sensor configurations, testing procedures, and dataset structure are thoroughly documented in the accompanying PDF file: "LabStructure_DynamicTestsOverview_DatasetGuide.pdf"

General description of the target structure: the model of a four-story building, approximately 1.2 meters tall with 0.52-meter square floors, is designed to capture lateral dynamic behavior. 

Location of site: the tests were conducted at the Institute of Structural Engineering (IBK), ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Test phases and measurement systems: Two major testing phases were performed.

1. Impact testing (Experimental Modal Analysis):
   • Excitation eith a modal impact hammer
   • Response measured using 6 uniaxial piezoelectric accelerometers in a roving configuration
   • Sampling rate: 100 Hz
   • Total of 32 tests, each comprising eight consecutive impacts
2. Random Excitation via Hexapod:
   • Tests conducted at low, medium, and high RMS levels
   • Directions: x-axis, y-axis, and combined x-y axis
   • Two structural states tested: baseline (undamaged) and damaged (via bolt loosening)
   • Measurements taken using:
     • 8-channel piezoelectric accelerometers (sampling rate: 500 Hz)
     • Optical tracking system (DMM - Optotrack Certus HD) for displacement (sampling rate: 200 Hz)
   • Three sensor layout configurations used in this phase

Damage Scenario: simulated by loosening bolts at nodes 21-25 on the third floor, affecting the structural stiffness and dynamic response.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) motivation: this testbed is used to assess and benchmark vibration-based monitoring methodologies. By introducing a controlled damage state, the dataset supports studies in damage detection and system identification.

Structure of the dataset

The dataset is provided as a compressed .zip folder and is accompained with a PDF file describing the structure, testing procedure, labeling, nomenclature and reference systems adopted:

• LabStructure_DynamicTestData.zip - dataset
• LabStructure_DynamicTestsOverview_DatasetGuide.pdf - accompaining document

The dataset is organized into two main parts:

1. Impact Testing Data
   • 32 .mat files corresponding to each test, with sensor labels and pre-scaled acceleration data
   • Metadata provided in .txt files
2. Random Excitation Testing Data
   • Piezoelectric accelerometers: 17 .mat files with acceleration responses and sampling frequencsy
   • DMM Displacement Data: 16 .mat files structured as MATLAB cell arrays with 96 DOFs
   • Metadata files included

How to cite this dataset

Brambilla, M., Dertimanis, V., Chatzi, E., Chiariotti, P., & Cigada, A. (2025). Experimental Campaign for Dynamic Characterization of a Laboratory-Scale Structure [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15516419

Bibtex

@dataset{brambilla2025experimental,
  author       = {Brambilla, Matteo and Dertimanis, Vasilis and Chatzi, Eleni and Chiariotti, Paolo and Cigada, Alfredo},
  title        = {Experimental Campaign for Dynamic Characterization of a Laboratory-Scale Structure},
  year         = {2025},
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.15516419},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15516419},
  note         = {Dataset}
}