MONITORING AND STRUCTURAL IDENTIFICATION OF A "STAR-SHAPED" REINFORCED CONCRETE BELL TOWER

The object of present study is the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria Assunta of Lamadacqua in Noci (Bari, Italy) that has been subject to restoration together with the adjacent church. The bell tower has a rather peculiar shape with section septa varying from bottom to top. The structure is entirely in reinforced concrete (r.c.) and is in adherence with the church made of masonry. The structure has undergone degradation phenomena caused mainly by exogenous phenomena, such as wind and atmospheric phenomena. Therefore, a series of interventions for the recovery and the structural reinforcement have been designed and realized. In order to get more information on the effects of the structure's interventions the behaviour of the tower to environmental vibrations was monitored using special accelerometers positioned on the bell tower and on the spiers. The acquired data were used to dynamically identify the structure and calibrate the FE model of the bell tower.