Practising structural engineers working with historic masonry structures need access to further developed methods to analyse and assess the structural behaviour of masonry vaults. The aim of this study is to evaluate methods to analyse vaulted masonry structures and to develop a methodology for the application of suitable methods to the work of practising structural engineers. A secondary aim is to use the methods studied to analyse and assess the structural behaviour of three Swedish church buildings of different types and with vaulted structures. The churches are Gökhem church, a small parish church built in the 12th century, and the Lund cathedral, also built in the 12th century; both originally in the Romanesque style but with later alterations. The third church is St Johannes church in Stockholm, built in the neogothic style in the late 19th century. The methods used are parametric graphic statics of thrust line analysis and Thrust Network Analysis (TNA), both based on funicular analysis. The results show the strength of using such methods to assess and evaluate the structural behaviour of historic vaulted masonry structures. They provide a pedagogical description of the structural behaviour of masonry vaults and the conditions that affect their load-carrying capacity. Another result is the implementation of a method to perform the analysis in a feasible and effective way. For the analysed church buildings, the results provide an understanding of their structural behaviour and clearly show how different variables affect the magnitude and impact of the thrusting force. Thrust Network Analysis has great potential to become a very effective method to perform advanced 3d analyses of masonry vaults but needs to be developed in order to enable “best fit solutions” to map the thrust network to the shape of the existing vaults. Such methods are under development.
Abstract
Practising structural engineers working with historic masonry structures need access to further developed methods to analyse and assess the structural behaviour of masonry vaults. The aim of this study is to evaluate methods to analyse vaulted masonry structures and to develop [...]
Roofs are complex elements of heritage structures which are not only meant to
protect the building from exterior methodological factors but are also defining the skyline of a
city while highlighting the importance and aesthetics of the building they belong to. However,
in seismic areas, roof structures prove out to either trigger the out-of-plane behaviour of
historic masonry buildings [1] or reduce the horizontal displacement, depending on their type
and their connection to the masonry walls [2]. The study is therefore aiming do highlight the
effect of common roof structure types from Timisoara, a city placed in the western part of
Romania, subjected to shallow earthquakes, on the seismic behaviour of a local type of masonry
structure, with a ground-floor and 2 upper floors, from the 18th century.
Throughout the study, three different types of roof structures were placed on the same masonry
building and the out-of-plane horizontal displacement, inter-story drift, damage level and
internal forces were assessed. The main scope of the study is to highlight how the chosen roof
structures from the 18th, 19th and 20th century, would influence the behaviour of a masonry
building during seismic events. Detailed numerical simulations using finite element models of
the building and the three roof structures were performed in order to obtain the four assessed
parameters, which prove that, depending on the connection to the masonry walls and the state
of conservation of the timber elements, roof structures would significantly improve the seismic
behaviour of historic masonry buildings in this area.
Abstract
Roofs are complex elements of heritage structures which are not only meant to
protect the building from exterior methodological factors but are also defining the skyline of a
city while highlighting the importance and aesthetics of the building they belong to. However, [...]
Analysis and Assessment of Swedish Vaulted Masonry Structures Using Funicular Methods 