Abstract
The Civic Tower in Portogruaro is a 51 m high masonry bell-tower, originally built in the XIII century, which today leans more than a metre out of plumb. Since 2003, the building inclination has been continuously monitored with an optical inclinometer in an effort to see whether the tilt is still in progress. When the monitoring started, it was thought highly unlikely that the Tower would tilt further. After three years of monitoring and historical investigation, this idea was completely overturned. We show here how the initial view evolved to a final awareness via a probabilistic model, based on Bayesian logic. We show how the joint use of instrumental monitoring and historical documentation allowed timely recognition of signs of ongoing tilting and accurate calculation not only of the mean inclination trend, but also the reliability level of this information.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Structural Analysis of Historic Construction: Preserving Safety and Significance - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historic Construction, SAHC08 |
Pages | 723-731 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Volume | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 4 Jul 2008 |
Event | 6th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historic Construction: Preserving Safety and Significance, SAHC08 - Bath, United Kingdom Duration: 2 Jul 2008 → 4 Jul 2008 |
Conference
Conference | 6th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historic Construction: Preserving Safety and Significance, SAHC08 |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Bath |
Period | 2/07/08 → 4/07/08 |
Keywords
- Bayesian
- structural analysis
- probabilistic logics
- health monitoring
- probabilistic models
- reliability level
- towers