Structural Behaviour of Historical Stone Arches and Vaults: Experimental Tests and Numerical Analyses

Abstract:

Recent seismic events showed the dramatic need, especially in case of historical and existing buildings, of important strengthening activities to be carried out. In order to properly design them, a careful assessment of real structural behaviour and load-carrying capacity of these buildings is strongly required. This is particularly important when dealing with constructions made of heterogeneous materials like masonry or stonework, where often conventional analysis techniques do not behave satisfactorily. This paper presents the results of an extensive experimental and numerical investigation on historical stone arches and vaults. A series of in-situ tests were carried out on different types of stone arches belonging to a large building of the XIX century, with the purpose of investigating their mechanical response and obtaining the structural behaviour of stonework under different types of in-plane loads. The experimental results were compared with the numerical solutions obtained by a detailed finite element model of a portion of the structure. Numerical linear and non-linear FE analyses were conducted in order to reproduce the experimental tests and analyse the interaction between series of arches that are linked by cross vault or tunnel vault. Finally, non-linear analyses with vertical and horizontal loads were carried out with the scope of simulating the seismic effect and to verify the ductility of this type of vaulted structures.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 628)
• Pages: 43-48
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.628.43
• Online since: August 2014
• Authors: Marco Bovo*, Claudio Mazzotti, Marco Savoia
• Keywords: Arch, Cross Vault, Experimental Test, Historic Stonework

References

[1] Mallardo V., Malvezzi R., Milani E., Milani G.; (2008) Seismic vulnerability of historical masonry buildings: A case study in Ferrara. Engineering Structures 30: 2223-2241.

DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2007.11.006

[2] Savoia M., Carli R.; (2010) L'utilizzo di tecniche di indagine soniche per la valutazione dell'efficacia dei consolidamenti nelle murature storiche. 18st C.T.E. Congress. Brescia (Italy).

[3] Uday Vyvas C. V., Venkatarama Reddy B. V.; (2010) Prediction of solid block masonry prism compressive strength using FE model. Materials and Structures 43: 719-735.

DOI: 10.1617/s11527-009-9524-9

[4] Hayen R., Van Balen K., Van Gemert D.; (2009) Triaxial interaction of natural stone, brick and mortar in masonry constructions. 1st WTA International PhD Symposium. Leuven (Belgium).

[5] Mistler M., Butenweg C., Meskouris K.; (2006) Modelling methods of historic masonry buildings under seismic excitation. Journal of Seismology 10: 497-510.

DOI: 10.1007/s10950-006-9033-z

[6] NTC2008 Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni (2008). Italian Building Code.