Damage monitoring of an historical masonry building by the acoustic emission technique

Acoustic Emission (AE) of the materials that are subject to stress and strain states is a methodology for non-destructive investigation, originally applied to industrial steel structures. Here it is proposed by the authors for identifying the damage in masonry buildings. This experimental method was used to monitor the masonry structure of an historical building, "Casa Capello", located in the centre of the Rivoli Municipality (near Turin, Italy). This house, built on pre-existing 14th century foundations, was thoroughly restructured at the end of the 18th century and has recently undergone restoration and enlargement works. Non-destructive AE tests were carried out on a few masonry portions of the building in order to evaluate and define the development of the cracking phenomena which had been observed in a number of structural parts after the collapse of a breast wall on the down hill side of the building. With the measurement system adopted, entailing no loading or invasive procedures, it proved possible to predict the arrest of crack growth and the concomitant onset of a new stability condition.