Structural health monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive testing (NDT) of slender masonry structures: A practical review

[EN] The scientific community is hardly working to propose reliable methodologies of analysis and non-invasive technologies of investigation to assess the current state of conservation of historic buildings to verify their ability to resist future threats. These structures, mostly made of masonry, are difficult to assess due to the heterogeneity of materials and their mechanical behavior, but it is vital to preserve this invaluable cultural heritage by suitable structural assessment techniques. A great deal of research atten-tion has been paid to monitoring their structural health; in many recent publications new advanced tech-nological methods have been provided such as cheaper sensors, wireless connections, non-contact surveys and continuous monitoring. A bibliometric study has shown that more than half of the papers on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive Testing (NDT) on masonry have been pub-lished between 2018 and 2020, and 30% of those published in 2020 were on 'slender' elements like tow-ers, chimneys or minarets. This paper presents a wide-ranging review of static and dynamic studies published on SHM and NDT of slender masonry structures summarizing and discussing the different experimental techniques used. With respect to the dynamic testing, Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) by accelerometers is the mostly frequent used technique by scholars, but other promising methods such as radar interferometry are also reported. This overall discussion is concluded with a short review of some examples on numerical structural health assessment and signal processing tools. An inclusive list of papers is provided describing the most important slender masonry structures characteristics, natural frequencies, experimental and numerical techniques employed and reference values. This paper, set on a practical perspective, is expected to be of interest to those researchers and practitioners who require an extensive and up-to-date review of this topic.Pallarés Rubio, FJ.; Betti, M.; Bartoli, G.; Pallarés Rubio, L. (2021). Structural health monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive testing (NDT) of slender masonry structures: A practical review. Construction and Building Materials. 297:1-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123768S13329

Seismic risk assessment of Trani’s Cathedral bell tower in Apulia, Italy

Abstract The present paper deals with the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of slender historical buildings; these structures, in fact, may manifest a high risk with respect to seismic actions as usually they have been designed to resist to gravitational loads only, and are characterized by a high flexibility. To evaluate this behavior, the bell tower of the Trani’s Cathedral is investigated. The tower is 57 m tall and is characterized by an unusual building typology, i.e., the walls are composed of a concrete core coupled with external masonry stones. The dynamic parameters and the mechanical properties of the tower have been evaluated on the basis of an extensive experimental campaign that made use of ambient vibration tests and ground penetrating radar tests. Such data have been utilized to calibrate a numerical model of the examined tower. A linear static analysis, a dynamic analysis and a nonlinear static analysis have been carried out on such model to evaluate the displacement capacity of the tower and the seismic risk assessment in accordance with the Italian guidelines