Numerical simulation of in situ nondestructive tests on historical masonry

During the last few years, the Authors have been involved with the structural assessment of a number of medieval structures (buildings, towers and vaults), which has been carried out with an extensive use of both experimental nondestructive techniques (NDT) and advanced nonlinear numerical simulations. Especially when dealing with historical structures, since the level of uncertainty is high, it is crucial to combine the experimental results with a detailed, possibly fully 3D, numerical analysis. The present paper collects a review of the main results concerning the numerical simulation and interpretation of NDT in situ tests. Special effort is devoted to the attempt of linking some of the experimental results (e.g. Acoustic Emissions) to the mechanical response of the structure (e.g. displacements, estimated remaining life, etc.) and to the outcome of the numerical simulation (e.g. amount of cracking in the model).