An Oriented H-BIM Approach for the Seismic Assessment of Cultural Heritage Buildings: Palazzo Vecchio in Florence

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper presents a good topic related to. An oriented H-BIM approach for the seismic assessment of Cultural Heritage Buildings: Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The attached file contains many comments to improve the paper before publication.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

The authors thank the reviewer for the revision. A global rereading of the manuscript has been conducted and some parts have been implemented. A general review of the English of the text has been done.

Regarding the specifing points covered by the reviewer:

Modifications to the title

To the authors’ opinion, the title of the manuscript if sufficiently clear and specific. Other options have been discussed but we have agreed that the proposed title reliably reflects the contents of the manuscript. The latter states that the H-BIM approach of the manuscript is particularly oriented to structural analyses. In this context, we believe that it might be in line with other titles published in literature (e.g. doi: 10.1145/3242901; doi: 10.3390/buildings12020194). However, we remain opened towards proposal coming from the reviewer.

Modifications to the abstract

The abstract has been modified according to the reviewer’s request

Add keywords

Further keywords have been added to the manuscript

Introduction

The introduction has been enriched with further points related to the interoperability in BIM and the structural assessment. The motivations of the work are explained at lines 82-86

BIM-based approach

Further references have been added to the text. The following sentence has been added:

“The studies undertaken in the international research community investigate the possibility of organizing the necessary information in a single 3D container using parametric objects. This approach is very useful in the case of data entry of diagnostic campaigns and material degradation [15, 35, 36]."

The quality of the figures of the text has been improved

Section 2.4

The title of the section has been modified to “output and query management”

In this session we did not discuss the results of the procedure, as it only considers the description of our approach. The application and its discussion follow in the section 3

Conclusions

The conclusions of the work have been revisited as suggested by the reviewers

The references have been updated and written according to the Journal

Reviewer 2 Report

-    The text is well structured, with a lot of research done.

-    However, authors should review some text punctuation.

-    In the sentence (lines 413 to 414), the authors could explain with precisely information, what mechanical characteristics of the materials are considered to improve the NTC from 2019, reference [50].

-    Furthermore, in the conclusions, the authors could underline the relevance of this study to support greater accuracy in the irregular geometric survey of CHBs, especially with different building phases, as Palazzo Vecchio.  If possible, authors can give more contributions/ recommendations to future seismic analyses assessment.

-    Explain sentence 448, related to the reference [51], “Integration of historical studies and ND techniques for the structural characterization of the masonry walls in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Diagnosis of Heritage Buildings by Non-Destructive Techniques” (introduce the relevance of its citation).

- In figures 10 and 11 the text from the box should be more visible.

- There should be further reflection on conclusions related to the literature review.

With these changes, the manuscript is ready to be submitted.

Author Response

The authors thank the reviewer for the revision. Replies to the different points touched by the reviewer are listed below:

-    In the sentence (lines 413 to 414), the authors could explain with precisely information, what mechanical characteristics of the materials are considered to improve the NTC from 2019, reference [50].

The sentence has been rephrased as: “The combination of the different acquisitions has then allowed obtaining information on the mechanical characteristics of the materials able to reconnect each masonry walls to the classification provided [62].”

All the different parameters defined in MIT2019 for each masonry type have been considered. Once a masonry wall is identified, since we did not execute destructive campaigns, we achieved the lowest knowledge level; for this, the Italian code indicates that the mean value of the Elastic moduli (Young’s modulus and Shear modulus) should be used, assuming the minimum value for the resistances (compressive and shear strength). This approach has been used in the analysis phase.

-    Furthermore, in the conclusions, the authors could underline the relevance of this study to support greater accuracy in the irregular geometric survey of CHBs, especially with different building phases, as Palazzo Vecchio.  If possible, authors can give more contributions/ recommendations to future seismic analyses assessment.

The conclusions of the text have been improved. Referring to the further seismic analyses that the authors aim to conduct on the building, the following sentence has been added:

“Concerning the structural assessment, the LV1 approach has only required the transmission of the structural information of walls and slabs together with their geometry, however, 3-D transfer through IFC modules are expected for the following phases of numerical analyses. The geometrical and structural information will be imported into numerical environments following different approaches, such as finite-element and equivalent frame ones [28, 72]. For the different approaches, the analyses will critically investigate the level of information automatically transferred, in order to reduce errors minimizing the human actions needed. The target of the different analysis will regard the development of more refined analysis, concerning both the whole Palace as specific portions. ”

-    Explain sentence 448, related to the reference [51], “Integration of historical studies and ND techniques for the structural characterization of the masonry walls in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Diagnosis of Heritage Buildings by Non-Destructive Techniques” (introduce the relevance of its citation).

The cited manuscript is a contribution written by part of the co-authors of the text and deals with the knowledge path conducted on Palazzo Vecchio to determine through ND tests and MD campaigns the structural features of the building. The paper, which been recently accepted for publication, explains in detail the issues related to the conducted investigations, the hierarchical workflow that has been developed, the cross-correlations came out from the different studies. Due to this, we believe that it is relevant in the context of the current manuscript, as it is focused on a specific part that concerns a more comprehensive path developed in this contribution.

The reference has been moved and the following text has been implemented:

“A more comprehensive description of the cross relationships used to determine the masonry typologies of the bearing walls based on ND and MD campaigns can be found in [63].”

- In figures 10 and 11 the text from the box should be more visible.

The figures have been improved.

- There should be further reflection on conclusions related to the literature review.

A general revision of the conclusions of the manuscript has been conducted. A more detailed discussion of the outcomes of the research within the literature has been proposed