the seismic safety of art works • focus b
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focus b the seismic safety of art works Marco Tanganelli DIDA | Department of Architecture, University of Florence
Fig. B FEM (FiniteElement Method) applied on the 3D model of Donatello’s Marzocco: static analysis for vertical loads
In the last years, a special attention has been paid to the conservation of cultural heritage. Due to both natural and anthropic hazards, many damages have occurred to the art works. New codes and guidelines have been dedicated to monumental and artistic goods, introducing proper procedures for their analysis and providing the needed thresholds for their safety assessment. With the increase of attention paid to the vulnerability of the cultural heritage, the analytical procedures able to provide the structural response of artistic goods subject to various loading conditions have been largely developed. The assessment of a safety level requires comparing the response of the investigated item under the assumed loading condition with the corresponding safety requirement. Besides the Technical Codes’ adequacy, the reliability of the safety assessment of artworks depends
• on the quality of the performed analysis, • on the experimental knowledge at the basis of the modeling assumptions, • on the technology used for the diagnostic of the items. The best results in terms of safety assessment have been achieved by combining diagnostic, experimental campaigns, and modeling. Such a comprehensive approach provides a so-called knowledge path, which takes advantage of many different fields. It collects the available information on the artworks, including the changes, the moving, and the interventions determining their creation. The experimental survey made on material samples or entire items is fundamental to obtain the correct values to assume for performing the numerical analyses. The numerical procedures are the most general and effective approach for the seismic assessment of the artworks. They can be applied
