Monitoring Propping System Removal in Domes and Tie-Rod Slackening from a Historical Building

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is gaining more and more interest in historical construction. It is a tool that controls, verifies, and informs about the condition or changes in the structure so that engineers can obtain reliable information for management and decision making. This article aims to present the monitoring systems developed during the propping system removal of several brickwork domes of a modernist church after strengthening work was performed on the domes. Given the need for exhaustive monitoring of the arch and dome movements, a monitoring strategy for an appropriate loading operation of these structural elements was developed. SHM was carried out using two instrumentation systems: the first one, based on temporary sensors, ensures local monitoring of displacements in domes and arches, and the second system, based on remote monitoring of several sensors, enables any unexpected structural behavior to be followed up before, during, and after the propping system removal of the domes. The systems made it possible to achieve centralized and reliable global monitoring of the structural elements of the building.