Ambient vibrations of age-old masonry towers: results of long-term dynamic monitoring in the historic centre of Lucca

The paper presents the results of an ambient vibration monitoring campaign conducted on so-called Clock Tower (Torre delle Ore), one the best known and most visited monuments in the historic centre of Lucca. The vibrations of the tower were continuously monitored from November 2017 to March 2018 using high-sensitivity instrumentation. In particular, four seismic stations provided by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and two three-axial accelerometers developed by AGI S.r.l., spin-off of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, were installed on the tower. The measured vibration level was generally very low, since the structure lies in the middle of a limited traffic area. Nevertheless, the availability of two different types of highly sensitive and accurate instruments allowed the authors to follow the dynamic behaviour of the tower during the entire monitoring period and has moreover provided cross-validation of the results

Model Updating Procedure to Enhance Structural Analysis in FE Code NOSA-ITACA

This paper describes a model updating procedure implemented in NOSA-ITACA, a finite-element (FE) code for the structural analysis of masonry constructions of historical interest. The procedure, aimed at matching experimental frequencies and mode shapes, allows for fine-tuning the calculations of the free parameters in the model. The numerical method is briefly described, and some issues related to its robustness are addressed. The procedure is then applied to a simple case study and two historical structures in Tuscany, the Clock Tower in Lucca and the Maddalena Bridge in Borgo a Mozzano