Electrical geophysical methods to non-destructive evaluation of architectural structures

Many efforts have been done in the last decades in non-destructive analysis of manufactures for both civil engineering and cultural heritage field. New methodological and technical approaches indeed have been developed to study architectural materials and structures. The present chapter, in particular, focuses on the electrical geophysical prospecting and its resolution power in the maintenance evaluation of artefacts as well as in the definition of the causes of eventual degradation. A description of physical, methodological and technical principles of some electrical geophysical methods is presented. Experimental tests from laboratory measurements on specimens simulating masonry structures are illustrated and discussed in order to supply guidelines for identification of the anomalies, which are due to cracks, detachments, dampness, and whose knowledge is essential for the interpretation of in situ (walls, columns, ???) micro-geophysical measurements.