Detecting Hidden Ties in Historic Venetian Palace by Means of GPR

Due to environmental conditions, historic buildings in Venice adopted in the past very particular construction techniques, one of the more characteristic being the connection system among floors and walls. In the framework of the CORILA Research Program 2004-2006, the task of developing particular NDT surveys for historical buildings in Venice was applied to a full-scale real case study, the Pisani Palace in St. Marina. The particular scope of this application was the detection of the hidden iron connection devices that in Venetian building usually linked the wooden floors to the masonry external façades, assuring the structural efficiency to the building system. The GPR technique was adopted for its ability to localize precisely the hidden ties and to trace a complete map of the system quickly and without any damage to the surfaces investigated.