A virtual instrumentation based system for mechanical and thermal measurements on the tallest medieval bell-tower in Europe

A complex virtual instrumentation based system for measurements of mechanical and thermal parameters of an ancient masonry bell-tower is described in this paper. Main focus is oriented towards the measurement issues and to the data acquisition and on-line analysis system, which is entirely based on a virtual instrument approach. Choice of transducers and strategies of data acquisition, analyses and storing are illustrated, and some of the results shown.