Abstract
One of the most remarkable structural elements characterizing the Milan Cathedral is its main spire, reaching the height of about 108 m and supporting the statue of the Virgin Mary. The Main Spire, built in Candoglia marble and completed in 1762, is about 40 m high and stands on the tiburio of the cathedral (i.e., the prismatic structure with octagonal base built around the main dome). The spire consists of a central column which is connected through a spiral staircase to 8 perimeter columns, with each column being stiffened by a flying buttress. The structural arrangement is completed by (i) metallic clamps and dowels, connecting the marble blocks, and (ii) metallic rods, connecting the perimeter columns to the central core.
A large monitoring system has been recently designed and installed in the Milan Cathedral, aimed at enhancing the knowledge and assisting the condition-based structural maintenance of the historic building. The new monitoring system includes temperature sensors and seismometers (electro-dynamic velocity sensors) at 3 levels of the Main Spire as well as a weather station at the top of the same spire.
After a concise historic background on the Main Spire of the Milan Cathedral and the description of the sensing devices installed in this sub-structure, the paper focuses on the dynamic characteristics of the spire and their evolution during the first year of monitoring.
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Gentile, C., Ruccolo, A. (2021). One-Year Dynamic Monitoring the Main Spire of the Milan Cathedral. In: Rizzo, P., Milazzo, A. (eds) European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring. EWSHM 2020. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 127. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64594-6_90
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64594-6_90
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