FULL-SCALE MODAL TESTING OF VAULTED GOTHIC CHURCHES: LESSONS LEARNED

Gothic-style vaulted churches represent a significant European and North American architectural heritage. Originating in medieval Europe, the Gothic style of construction in unreinforced masonry continued from the 12th through the 16th centuries in Europe and was revived in England and North America in the 19th century. Given their cultural and architectural value, these structures continue to he used for religious services and for tourism even though there is evidence of weakening effects of aging and accumulated damage through their life span. As a result of the increasing demand for the condition assessment and rehabilitation of these historic structures, the application of modal testing for condition assessment of large-scale masonry buildings is a growing new area in the field of experimental mechanics. In current practice, for civil structures, the modal parameters obtained experimentally by modal testing can be used to improve a finite element (FE) model, to assess the vibration serviceability, or to monitor the structural health of the system. Such use of experimental data is based on the assumption that the measurements are accurate representations of the actual system dynamics. Here, Atamturktur et al discuss recent tests conducted on several Gothic churches. The tests described herein are conducted with the sole intention of extracting sufficient knowledge to improve FE models of the structures.