BIM and Structural Modeling: Application on Cultural Heritage

The seismic safety of cultural heritage cannot be managed through the structural analysis only. First of all, the knowledge phase concerning construction technique and materials properties becomes strictly necessary. The Building Information Modeling (B.I.M.) is the concrete method allowing the peculiarities of the architectural/restoration design and the structural counterpart to be simultaneously contemplated. In fact, in the B.I.M. methodology for structures all the features of the virtual model are suitably contemplated. In this paper, the B.I.M. for cultural heritage is dealt with, outlining its main steps (inspections, measurements and surveys, non-destructive investigations, integrated structural modeling and s.o.) and configuring the new B.I.M.4S&D methodology. The latter is shown through the application to a historic masonry building. The numerical structural analysis of the existing masonry building is a relevant key since it must simulate what already exists and what arises from in-site testing and evaluation, avoiding falling into contradiction and trivial errors. Finite element method (FEM) is then used in the structural analysis for evaluating the safety of buildings subjected to static and seismic loads. The FEM method, in fact, is flexible and takes into account anisotropy and lack of homogeneity of masonry material. Furthermore, the finite element method lends itself to a more or less complex computerization, and it intrinsically has all the features interfaced with the digital geometric survey.