Earthquake Performance of Bell Towers in the Island of Kefalonia, Greece

: The dynamic and earthquake response of bell towers, located at the Island of Kefalonia, Greece, is examined here. These structures were subjected during the winter of 2014 to an intensive earthquake sequence. The dynamic characteristics of two bell towers were measured in situ. Subsequently the dynamic and earthquake response of each bell tower was numerically simulated employing 3-D dynamic elastic numerical simulations taking into account the soil-foundation deformability. It is demonstrated that the soil-foundation-structure interaction influences the dynamic and earthquake response predictions for this structure quite significantly. It also demonstrates the usefulness of such in-situ testing towards formulating realistic numerical models in order to yield realistic predictions of the dynamic and earthquake response of the examined structures. The obtained numerical analyses utilize the earthquake ground motion which was recorded at close distance from both bell towers. The numerical predictions of the earthquake response of both bell towers are utilized to draw conclusions of their actual earthquake performance. It is concluded that the soil-foundation interaction was a critical response mechanism. The newly built RC (reinforced concrete) bell towers performed satisfactorily.