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CASE STUDIES
Cutting-Edge technology for the Garisenda tower
The Garisenda Tower is one of the so-called two towers of Bologna, a symbol of the city built in the late 11th and early 12th century. The historical slope is due to an ancient subsidence of the foundation ground, which led to its lowering to the current 48 metres in 1353. The initial height was in fact 60 metres, but the steep slope risked causing it to collapse, so it was lowered by 12 metres to prevent this.
Since 2018, the Garisenda has undergone consolidation works and has been constantly monitored to verify the structure’s behaviour over time and ensure its safety and preservation.
The current monitoring system of the Garisenda Tower supplied by Lunitek in the first half of 2022, based on the acoustic emission technique, a little-known and little-exploited monitoring technique with great potential, consists of a total of 16 ultrasonic sensors, 2 AEMission dataloggers for data synchronisation and recording, and a 4G router for remote acquisition on a server. An SFTP space, accessible from the Internet using the appropriate credentials, is also available to allow technicians to access and process the data. This system has already allowed a risk profile of the structure’s stability to be elaborated in almost real time.
The surveys and analyses are carried out by the Polytechnic University of Turin, and the data collected were processed using modern multi-parametric statistical analysis techniques to identify correlations between the data that most influence the stability of the structure.
In recent months, the reports from the sensors have increased, detecting abnormal vibrations and oscillations. The monitoring system will be expanded to allow a more detailed analysis of the structure.
