Abstract
<p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-GB">The structural and anti-seismic performances of historical masonry churches are related not only to structural damage and masonry quality but also to other criticalities that can jeopardise the connections, wooden elements, and non-structural elements. As such, the technical and scientific communities are interested in the development of fast visual-survey approaches for assessing these issues and for performing exhaustive diagnostics by considering all the parameters affecting the building performance.</span></p><p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-GB">In this paper, a new procedure for performing rapid visual surveys and the diagnostics of masonry buildings using a set of condition ratings is proposed. The proposed novel approach includes three synergistically related techniques: i) the analytic hierarchy process method for measuring and analysing both qualitative and quantitative data during a visual survey, ii) a suitable survey form to perform a rapid visual inspection implementable in a decision support system (DSS), and iii) a DSS procedure to provide a powerful computerised tool that would be useful in large-scale data acquisition. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, the Romanesque masonry church SS. Salvatore in Capurso, Italy,</span><span lang="EN-GB">is analysed. A comparison with a standard diagnostic workflow is also presented to validate the procedure and to emphasise the advantages of the novel diagnostics.</span></p><p class="Abstract"> </p>
Highlights
The structural diagnostics of a masonry building should involve numerous criteria, phenomena, and criticalities
The first step of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach was applied to investigate the deterioration in the structural performance of masonry churches that is due to the various phenomena and typologies pertaining to construction criticalities and damage
This article presented a new procedure based on the AHP approach, which was developed to perform rapid on-site measurements and diagnostics of masonry churches through a series of condition assessment indexes
Summary
The structural diagnostics of a masonry building should involve numerous criteria, phenomena, and criticalities. As a multicriteria decision-making tool, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) allows for performing exhaustive structural analyses due to the possibility of considering numerous criteria and subsequently affording them a calibrated weight. This method has become popular in various areas of construction. A key point of the proposed method is the effective evaluation of suitable condition ratings, which depend on an extremely large amount of possible damage, degradations, or criticalities affecting the church In this field, the use of the AHP approach can be useful since it allows for considering both qualitative and quantitative data and for examining complex issues via multicriteria analysis. The resulting condition ratings can be implemented in a DSS that supports the decision-making activities related to maintenance and monitoring [32]
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