Damage Assessment and Rehabilitation of Heritage Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

Most masterpieces and art collections are stored in historical buildings used as museums. Such buildings are usually very sensitive to vibrations, since they were built without any anti-seismic regulations. Their dynamic properties, therefore, can significantly affect the safety of the exhibited artifacts, which can easily be very vulnerable due to their age, materials, and features. Following the occurrence of seismic excitations, art collections can become damaged, and the most vulnerable items can be destroyed. However, even for ordinary occurrences, the vibrations can be a threat, affecting the safety and conservation properties of some items.

This Special Issue is focused on the dynamic monitoring and analysis of both historical buildings used for exhibitions and pieces of art. Special attention is devoted to the combined effects of the dynamic response of the container and content due to external excitations. Both exceptional excitations, such as earthquakes and explosions, and ordinary ones, such as micro-seismic activities, wind, visitors walking, vehicular traffic, and construction works, should be taken into account. This Special Issue will collate a variety of contributions, both theorical and experimental, within this field, ranging from general issues to specific case studies.

The main topics covered by the Special Issue include the following:

• Dynamic monitoring and/or analysis of masterpieces, artifacts, and art collections;
• Dynamic monitoring and/or analysis of historical and monumental buildings;
• Dynamic monitoring and/or analysis of museums;
• Seismic assessment of masterpieces, artifacts, and art collections;
• Seismic assessment of historical and monumental buildings;
• The design of innovative devices for increasing the seismic safety of art collections.

Dr. Stefania Viti
Dr. Riccardo Mario Azzara
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• dynamic monitoring
• art collections
• art museums
• historical monumental buildings
• dynamic response of art staging
• seismic assessment of art goods