OMA-based structural health monitoring of historic structures

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is generally defined as a multi-disciplinary process involving: (a) the repeated or continuous measurement of the response of a structural system through arrays of appropriate sensors; (b) the extraction from measured data of features, which are representative of the health condition and (c) the statistical analysis of these features to detect any novelty or abnormal change in the investigated system. Among the different SHM strategies, the fully non-destructive nature and the minimum impact of the vibration monitoring makes the OMA-based approach especially suitable to address the preservation of Cultural Heritage structures and also to avoid, in some cases, inappropriate strengthening interventions. In the paper, the main ideas of OMA-based SHM of historic structures are presented and exemplified through the application to both relatively simple and very complex buildings, such as towers and cathedrals.