ABSTRACT
The knowledge of the health-state conditions of a masonry structure is a prerequisite both for a reliable assessment towards seismic risk and for selecting proper maintenance and restorations interventions. In the ex-church of San Barbaziano in Bologna, Italy, sonic tomography tests were carried out in masonry piers of irregular shape and walls in addition to more traditional direct and superficial sonic tests, to evaluate and visualize the internal conformation of masonry sections. Several non-destructive tests (NDT) based on different physical principles, such as acoustic or electromagnetic are available for purposes. The chapter shows that the methodology, its reliability, efficiency, advantages and limits throughout example results obtained in a real historic masonry building. The quality and homogeneity of the masonry elements and the masonry properties were first investigated by means of acoustic NDT and later, by micro-coring and by mechanically testing the samples obtained from the cores.
