In order to properly design strengthening intervention of existing buildings, careful assessment of the structural behavior is\ncertainly required. This is particularly important when dealing with historical constructions made of heterogeneous materials like\nmasonry or stonework. In this context, this paper presents the results of knowledge process on a large monumental nineteenth\ncentury building located in Trieste. The traditional investigation approach considering a wide number of destructive tests for\ncharacterization of materials and evaluation of the structural details were not admissible due to the valuable cultural and historical\nimportance of the building. Therefore, an alternative and not conventional investigation approach has been considered. After\na wide historical research and a detailed structural survey, it has been possible to identify the main structural systems of the\nbuilding. Then, to characterize the structural response, a limited number of nondestructive tests but on full-scale typological\nsystems have been preferred to a larger number of destructive tests on specimens of the different materials. The selected experimental\nload tests have been conducted in order to assess the actual structural response of the main systems that constitute the\nbuilding, thus allowing for a fine tuning of both the rehabilitation interventions and the numerical finite element models.
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