Mallorca Cathedral stands on ancient Roman and Islamic ruins of the city of Palma de Mallorca, on
Mallorca Island (Spain) overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The cathedral is an imposing structure,
grand in design both inside and out, of significant cultural heritage. It has religious and historical
importance for the island, thus its preservation has been the motivation of several studies into its
structural behavior.
An overview of Mallorca Cathedral is given in this thesis including a chronological construction history
and description of the building, materials, and seismicity of the island. Thermography and dynamic
monitoring, both used to collect data for the analysis, are also summarized in general as well as in
relation to historical constructions.
The analysis of the cathedral investigated the effects of the change in stone temperature and ambient
meteorological conditions on its dynamic behavior. Data was collected over a two periods of two
weeks in the winter and the summer of 2011 for the external weather conditions obtained from a public
database, stone temperature by means of thermographic imaging, and modal frequencies by dynamic
monitoring. A multiple linear regression analysis utilizing principle component was then performed on
the compiled winter data to establish the relationship between the stone temperature and ten modal
frequencies of the cathedral in the east-west and north-south directions. A brief wind analysis was
done on the first modal frequency to determine if its presence was affected by wind direction and/or
velocity. Results from the statistical analyses are presented in this work and concluding comments
end the thesis along with recommendations for future study in this area.
