Dynamic identification of a historical masonry building: the case study of palazzo Rosciano

This paper focuses on the dynamic characterization of a historical building located in the port city of Livorno (Italy), Palazzo Rosciano. It is a masonry structure built in the second half of the 1600 and fully renovated in the nineties to accommodate the offices of the North Tyrrhenian Sea Port Authority. The research was carried out starting from a preliminary inspection and a historical-critical analysis. Then, a detailed geometric survey was carried out using a 3D laser scanner. To define the mechanical properties of materials a series of minor destructive tests, i.e., flat jacks, shove test, and penetrometer, were performed. A structural health monitoring campaign was also carried out under ambient vibrations using a wireless sensor network. The acquired data was processed to characterize the dynamics of the structure by means of two different output-only techniques, the frequency domain decomposition, and the stochastic subspace identification.