“MASONRY ARCH BRIDGES IN VENICE: EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL PROCEDURES FOR STRUCTURAL IDENTIFICATION”

Masonry arch bridges are an important part of architectural historical heritage. Their presence is a characteristic feature of the Italian and European landscape. A large number of research and studies about. This theme have been produced in literature during time. Regarding Venetian bridges, except for the most famous architectures. Data are lacking given by research results are lacking. A procedure for structural identification and for the evaluation of the material mechanical characteristics for historical masonry bridges is here presented with the aim of their conservation and restoration. The procedure, based on experimental measurements and numerical analyses, requires, at first, the measurements of the bridge’s fundamental frequencies, then, through the calibration of bridge FE Model, allows the estimation of the average materials characteristics. In particular, for the frequency acquisition data, the procedure proposes the use of a compact digital tromograph, a highly sophisticated measuring device, equipped with accelerometric and velocimetric transducers, that allows fast and low cost vibration measurements. Successive analyses, by means of fast Fourier transform, permit to estimate the fundamental frequency of the structure. For one study case the validity of the results obtained is confirmed by making a comparison with a measurement campaign performed using accelerometers as instruments.