Structural Health Monitoring of an Historical Building: The Main Spire of the Duomo Di Milano. Issue 4 (19th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cigada, A.; Corradi Dell'Acqua, L.; Mörlin Visconti Castiglione, B.; Scaccabarozzi, M.; Vanali, M.; Zappa, E.
• Is Part Of: International journal of architectural heritage. Volume 11:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 501
• Page End: 518
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19
• Subjects: Automatic monitoring system -- continuous monitoring -- dynamic measurements -- experimental techniques -- restoration -- static measurements -- structural health monitoring; Architecture -- Conservation and restoration -- Periodicals; Historic buildings -- Periodicals; Historic preservation -- Planning -- Periodicals; 721.0288
• DOI: 10.1080/15583058.2016.1263691
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1558-3058

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Health assessment of historical buildings by means of monitoring systems is for sure a fundamental step to preserve architectural heritage, especially for countries as Italy, rich in ancient monuments. Events such as earthquakes or severe weather phenomena constitute a major risk for these buildings because of their age and the related weakness to sustain exceptional excitations. The availability of a continuous, real-time, and automatic structural health monitoring system is considered a useful tool for early detection of a potentially dangerous situation for the structure and its occupants. The choice of the best measurement strategy provided by the monitoring system is crucial: a compromise must be found between the need of information, complexity of the measuring system and the related costs. Due to the difficulty in modelling most historical structures, it is a hard task to fix proper and safe limits relying on model-generated predictions only. The availability of long-term records of the structural response can help get this goal, not just relying on models, but also detecting changes in some parameters obtained from time records. This article presents a challenging example: the structural health monitoring of the Duomo di Milano main spire during and after restoration.