Abstract
Historic masonry buildings are characterised by uniqueness, which is intrinsically present in their building techniques, morphological features, architectural decorations, artworks, etc. From the modelling point of view, the degree of detail reached on transforming discrete digital representations of historic buildings, e.g., point clouds, into 3D objects and elements strongly depends on the final purpose of the project. For instance, structural engineers involved in the conservation process of built heritage aim to represent the structural system rigorously, neglecting architectural decorations and other details. Following this principle, the software industry is focusing on the definition of a parametric modelling approach, which allows performing the transition from half-raw survey data (point clouds) to geometrical entities in nearly no time. In this paper, a novel parametric Scan-to-FEM approach suitable for architectural heritage is presented. The proposed strategy uses the Generative Programming paradigm implementing a modelling framework into a visual programming environment. Such an approach starts from the 3D survey of the case-study structure and culminates with the definition of a detailed finite element model that can be exploited to predict future scenarios. This approach is appropriate for architectural heritage characterised by symmetries, repetition of modules and architectural orders, making the Scan-to-FEM transition fast and efficient. A Portuguese monument is adopted as a pilot case to validate the proposed procedure. In order to obtain a proper digital twin of this structure, the generated parametric model is imported into an FE environment and then calibrated via an inverse dynamic problem, using as reference metrics the modal properties identified from field acceleration data recorded before and after a retrofitting intervention. After assessing the effectiveness of the strengthening measures, the digital twin ability of reproducing past and future damage scenarios of the church is validated through nonlinear static analyses.
Highlights
Given its important role for economies and societies, the preventive conservation and maintenance of the built cultural heritage (BCH) continue to stand as major priorities of the overall political strategy at the European level
Concerning the historic masonry structures, an early attempt involving the development of a comprehensive methodology to structure and integrate the significance of tangible and intangible elements into HBIM models was proposed by Angjeliu et al (2020) [8]
The present paper aims to define a parametric Scan-to-FEM framework for the Digital Twin (DT) generation of historic masonry structures (HMSs), which is straightforward and computationally efficient in case of massive buildings characterised by the repetition of architectural and structural modules and/or components
Summary
Given its important role for economies and societies, the preventive conservation and maintenance of the built cultural heritage (BCH) continue to stand as major priorities of the overall political strategy at the European level. In order to effectively use the geometric data derived by 3D laser scanning for structural purposes, it is necessary to perform operations that transform a point cloud into a continuum model To handle these processes, several approaches have been recently proposed in the literature for the automatic mesh generation of HMS models from 3D point clouds. The data collected through permanent vibration monitoring systems may be exploited to automatically calibrate and update the structural model characteristics through the use of internet of things (IoT) technology [17,18] During this process, it is possible to quantify the degree of representativeness and accuracy of the digital model and, further on, to identify the necessary steps to be undertaken if the model is to be improved.
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