Structural control of a masonry vault

Ancient buildings sometimes need to be supplied with reinforcing structures. Active reinforcements can be the right answer to quite complex, and widely unknown working conditions. Their design requires, in particular, the choice of a control policy and the optimal design of sensors-processors-actuators. The vault of the Maggior Consiglio Hall in the Duke's Palace of Genoa, although presently supported by an auxiliary truss, undergoes relatively large displacements, probably due to temperature variations; the use of stiffer links to reduce these displacements may result into high thermal stresses. This problem is studied here as an example of the design of a control system. A numerical model of the structure is proposed, and a performance function is considered; a feedback loop is designed and the corresponding algorithm is given. The inverse problem of determining the actuating forces following variable external condition to achieve the best performance is solved. Results show the feasibility of the method.