Experimental evidence and prediction of soil-structure interaction effects for a masonry tower

Remedial actions on historical buildings have to be planned carefully in order to preserve not only the shape and appearance of the monument but also its historical and material integrity. This requires a deep knowledge of the behaviour of the structure, based on long term observations, and quite often the interaction with soil plays a relevant role. In particular, this interaction cannot be neglected when dealing when assessing both seismic vulnerability and long-term behaviour. Although advanced numerical tools are increasingly available, simple approaches still play a fundamental role for the understanding of the actual behaviour of complex structural systems in the engineering practice. In this work a rational framework for soil-structure interaction analysis is proposed and validated by using experimental data from a permanent monitoring system installed on a masonry tower in Italy.