"Preservation of historic towers in Venice: the instructive monitoring driven intervention on the foundations of the Frari bell tower" by Prof. Guido Gottardi (University of Bologna)

Seminar overview:

Preservation interventions on historic structures must be designed in full respect of all their features. An emblematic example is represented by the multiphase intervention carried out on the bell tower of the Frari Basilica, the second tallest in Venice. The tower suffers from a slow but constant differential settlement with respect to the adjacent masonry structures of the Basilica. Modern remedial measures have been therefore implemented, first on the foundations – using a ground improvement intervention by fracture grouting – and then on the elevation structure. The seminar aims at highlighting: i) the strategy of improving the overall safety without altering the original structure, ii) the innovative methodology of a modular design, constantly driven by the outcome of an extensive real-time monitoring system of the soil-structure interaction. deaths.

Biography:

Guido Gottardi, Ph.D. @ Turin Polytechnic, Marie Curie Research Fellow @ Oxford and Southampton, Full Professor of Geotechnical Engineering @ DICAM - University of Bologna (Italy). Vice President of the Italian Group of Geotechnical Engineering (GNIG). Member of TC301, ISSMGE technical committee on “Preservation of Historic Sites”. Author and co-author of more than 150 scientific papers, his early research work was focused on physical and analytical modelling of the behaviour of shallow foundations. More recently, he has been involved in the stability analysis of historic towers.

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