Integrating geomatics and structural investigation in post-earthquake monitoring of ancient monumental Buildings

Abstract

The old city center of L'Aquila is rich in historical buildings of considerable merit. On April 6 th 2009 a devastating earthquake caused signi cant structural damages, a ecting especially historical and monumental masonry buildings. The results of a study carried out on a monumental building, former headquarters of the University of L'Aquila (The Camponeschi building, XVI century) are presented in this paper. The building is situated in the heart of the old city center and was seriously damaged by the earthquake. Preliminary visual damage analysis carried out immediately after the quake, clearly evidenced the building's complexity, raising the need for direct and indirect investigation on the structure. Several non-destructive test methods were then performed in situ to better characterize the masonry typology and the damage distribution, as well. Subsequently, a number of representative control points were identi ed on the building's facades to represent, by their motion over time, the evolution of the structural displacements and deformations. In particular, a surveying network consisting of 27 di erent points was established. A robotic total station mounted on top of a concrete pillar was used for periodically monitoring the surveying control network. Stability of the pillar was checked through a GNSS static survey repeated before any set of measurements. The present study evidences the interesting possibilities of combining geomatics with structural investigation during post-earthquake monitoring of ancient monumental buildings.

Validation of a measurement procedure for the assessment of the safety of buildings in urgent technical rescue operations

“…The test area is located in Fossa, a small village next to L'Aquila, in central Italy (Figure 1), hits by 2009 earthquake [15]. The area is a square surrounded by three buildings and a tower.…”

Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Historical Masonry Wall Specimens Tested in Shear-Compression Configuration

“…From an architectural point of view, a general description of the building is provided in Ceci et al (2010) and in Dominici et al (2014). From a structural viewpoint, Palazzo Camponeschi's original resistant system consists of vertical masonry walls composed of irregular stone units and poor lime-clay mortar joints.…”

“…Historical masonry buildings suffered from very heavy damages, their global collapse being in most cases avoided by tie and rods, anchor plates and other simple but effective earthquake-resistant presidium present due to the historical seismic nature of the land (Ceci et al 2010). However, poor connections among orthogonal masonry walls, reduced floors stiffness, wrong mass distribution and absence of restraints to out-of-plane wall mechanisms were recognized as the causes for collapse of most masonry buildings (Dominici et al 2011(Dominici et al , 2012(Dominici et al , 2014. Most of these buildings are characterized from a similar masonry typology, the physical and mechanical properties of which start now to be properly investigated.…”

Innovative Use of UHF-RFID Wireless Sensors for Monitoring Cultural Heritage Structures

“…The out-of-plane displacement of the walls represents a much more insidious and dangerous kinematic mechanism than the collapse of the walls due to in-plane actions and requires generally more demanding equipment and measurement systems to install and use for monitoring over time. For the measurement of the out-of-plane displacements of the walls [50], optical wireless techniques can be used through the use of prisms fixed on the surfaces observed by theodolites or surveys with laser scanners. In the first case, the number of points monitored is generally limited by the cost of the prisms and the survey operations; in the second case, the management of the point clouds generated by the laser scanner and the cost of this equipment make the technique possible only for very particular applications (monuments of great value, absolute displacements easily recognizable for the entire structure rather than for its individual parts).…”