DIGITAL TWIN OF CULTURAL HERITAGE BUILDINGS “TORRE DELLA MOLETTA CIRCO MASSIMO ROME”

Historic masonry towers located in areas with a lot of foot traffic and gatherings are highly susceptible to damage due to their old architecture. For example, when concerts are held nearby, the high-quality speakers generate acoustic waves, and the ground vibrations from people jumping can also impact the structure. This study focuses on conducting a detailed structural analysis by creating a digital twin of the Torre della Moletta (Moletta Tower), which was constructed before 1145 B.C. It is located in Circus Maximus, Rome, Italy. The area around the tower is known for hosting gatherings of over 4500 people during concerts. A visit on-site was important to obtain point cloud data through Laser scanners which were then fed in Autodesk Recap for optimization and transferred to Revit to develop a Building Information Model (BIM), ensuring interoperability with MIDAS Gen for advanced finite element modeling (FEM). A 3D FEM model was generated, and modal analysis was performed to determine the structure's natural frequencies. These frequencies were then validated against dynamic identification results by model updating. Furthermore, the elastic modulus of the masonry was set to 1200 MPa to refine the model and accurately reflect the natural frequencies. The final model served as a digital twin of the actual structure. In addition, a dynamic acoustic pressure analysis was conducted on the tower because of concert nearby, which indicated that the displacements and velocities were within the acceptable range according to ISO-4866. This comprehensive approach highlights the integration of BIM methodologies with FEM analysis to enhance structural fidelity and performance assessment.