The effects of temperature on historical stone masonry structures

The effects of the environmental temperature on the stone masonry of ancient structures are often taken into account only as far as the weathering of the surface materials is concerned. Instead, this paper focuses on the structural effects that the stresses induced by the thermal strains can have on ancient buildings or parts of them. Analyzing three case studies, the different possible effects of environmental temperature changes over monuments are presented: temperature changes can produce both global effects, mainly in the case of massive structures, and local effects, especially in the contact areas between materials with different thermal behaviours or with different exposure to environmental thermal actions. The solutions to these problems have therefore to be calibrated on the situation encountered.