Monitoring Heritage Buildings
In a large archaeological/architectural park, one
ruined XVI c. masonry tower has been monitored for about one month. Two Strain Gauges and a comparator have been
positioned astride a vertical long slot. All three devices were covered with a
suitable protection and all were connected to one of the two lead-acid
batteries, sealed inside a waterproof plastic box. The box was positioned close to the
installation point of the devices. Unfortunately, in the absence of a good
network connection within the Park, the third meter-arch has not been
positioned and it will be subject for a subsequent intervention.
This first installation is an initial attempt to test
remote control of Cultural Heritage crack behaviour with new types of
displacement sensors, tailored for this specific use. Not having positioned a
second group of devices, it was decided to use, as already indicated, only one
lead-acid battery (6v). It guarantees the power supply of the machine
containing the detection and acquisition system which saves all the data
collected inside a micro-SD card whose data, detected once every half hour,
will be collected and processed at the end of the monitoring.
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Crack identified, located at the top right of the entrance |
Installation of our device for
monitoring |
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Inside the tower a crack has been identified, located
at the top right of the entrance door. The two meter-arches were placed on it:
one anchored to the mortar and the other anchored to the tuff bricks. The
additional and standard, commercial, digital comparator was positioned below.
The control device, the battery and the comparator screen that allows us to
read the final displacement data were placed inside the sealed box and
positioned nearby the slot. The surveying has been decided to be as prototype
for other following measurements in the Park area, considering the future
option to conserve as well as restore some ruins.
The size of the box seemed a little bit difficult to
place very close to the crack, so a further study will also serve to define a
smaller support elements and boxes. At the end of the installation work we can
see how the two arches, the comparator and the hygrometer were positioned in
correspondence with the slot. The elements will remain there for about seven
days after which the data will be collected and analyzed.
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Our complete systems for monitoring |
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Real
displacement graph during monitoring |
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Monitoring time (hrs) |
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Temperature |
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Monitoring time (hrs) |
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Humidity |
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Monitoring time (hrs) |
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