STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE AND HUMAN COMFORT ASSESSMENT OF RC CANTILEVER GRANDSTANDS: THE CASE OF THE SECOND RING OF SAN SIRO MEAZZA STADIUM IN MILAN

Reports from all over the world highlight that several stadiums with cantilever grandstand have shown problems due to excessive vibrations during soccer matches, requiring a more detailed and careful evaluation of the actual structural performances with the aim of assessing both human comfort and structural safety. As a matter of fact, many of the stadiums currently used have been designed and built neglecting some phenomena (e.g., dynamic load of spectators), because of the limited knowledge and computational resources. This work intends to examine the San Siro Meazza reinforced concrete Stadium, located in Milan; in particular, the analysis focuses on the study of a portion of the second sector, for which observed acceleration values could disturb the spectators according to literature’s reference. The dynamic behavior of the structure has been evaluated under different conditions of dynamic loads in terms of frequency and synchronous/asynchronous motion of people through a linear finite element model (FEM). The model has been calibrated on experimental dynamic data. The studies have highlighted the importance of the dynamic characterization of the structure for both human comfort and structural safety; under certain load conditions, numerical results are consistent with those obtained experimentally.