Structural assessment and consolidation of an historical cupola

This paper deals with the structural assessment of the main cupola of the 17th century Church Beata Vergine di Monserrato, in the center of Barisardo, eastern coast of Sardinia (Italy). In 2004 the whole structure was subjected to a conservative intervention, including a partial consolidation of the cupola, affected by an extended state of damage; nevertheless, soon after the dome required some newer interventions and doubts rose upon its stability. In this paper the safety level of the dome and an interpretation of the damages have been tackled by means of a two-way approach: Finite Element modelling and Limit Analysis calculations. The results of the two approaches have been compared and discussed leading to a reinforcing proposal by means of CFRP sheets glued on the external surface of the masonry structure