Geomatic techniques for the colonnade structural analysis of the historical "chiaramonte steri" building

Abstract

The monitoring of building structures has an increasingly important role in the engineering field, above all because they are concerned with the impact that such structures have in the area where they were built. Often, when walking through the old town centres, we realize just how obsolete and dangerous some buildings (even historic-cultural ones) are. The interest of some local governments in this problem has led, in the last few years, to the study and the trying out of measuring and monitoring methods which, quickly and at low cost, allow to define the extent of the deformation and the degrade in an accurate and reliable way. The Courtyard of "Palazzo Steri-Chiaramonte" is composed of a colonnade on two orders. On the ground floor there are eight columns made up of cylindrical overlapped tuff bricks, with the same radius, while at the first floor there are 12 marble columns with a reduced section compared to those on the ground floor. All the columns have been characterized by a displacement compared by the vertical direction. This paper aim is describing the used methodology in order to evaluate the structural displacements of the colonnade and to monitor them in the future.