Latest revision as of 17:19, 30 November 2021

Abstract

Masonry vaults have a great diffusion in the historical architectural heritage: in this work, their structural behavior is investigated. Attention is focused on lowered sail vaults composed by several brick arrangements, a typical nineteenth-century masonry vault which have great diffusion in Cagliari (Sardinia). The target is evaluating the role played by bricks arrangement in their mechanical behavior. A series of rigorous laser scanner surveys have been performed in order to obtain the effective geometry both at macro-level – the vault shape – and at micro-level – brick patterns. A NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B Spline) representation of the geometry is adopted and adaptive upper bound limit analyses are performed. NURBS entities, which are common in commercial CAD packages, have the great advantage to describe complex geometries such as curved elements, with very few elements. An upper bound limit analysis formulation is adopted, in which the NURBS elements forming the mesh are idealized as rigid bodies with dissipation allowed only along interfaces. The mesh constituted by few NURBS elements is progressively adjusted through a genetic algorithm in order to minimize the live load multiplier. Limit analysis is performed initially to determine the collapse multiplier of vertical loads, to assess the load bearing capacity of the vault, then attention is focused on differential settlements, that may be a serious hazard for this structural typology.

Full document

References

[1] D’Altri, A., Sarhosis, V., Milani, G., Rots, J., Cattari, S., Lagomarsino, S., et al. 2019. Modeling strategies for the computational analysis of unreinforced masonry structures: Review and classification. Arch. Comput. Method. Eng doi:10.1007/s11831-019-09351-x

[2] Boothby, T. E. 2001. Analysis of masonry arches and vaults. Progress in Structural Engineering and materials, 3(3): 246-256.

[3] Lucchesi, M., Padovani, C., Pasquinelli, G. & Zani N. 2007. Static analysis of masonry vaults, constitutive model and numerical analysis. J. Mech. Mater. Struct., 2(2): 221–2 44.

[4] Tralli, A., Alessandri, C. & Milani, G. 2014. Computational Methods for Masonry Vaults: A Review of Recent Results. The Open Civil Engineering Journal, 8: 272-287.

[5] Valente, M., Milani, G., Grande, E., & Formisano, A. 2019. Historical masonry building aggregates: Advanced numerical insight for an effective seismic assessment on two row housing compounds. Eng. Struct., 190, 360-379.

[6] Valente, M., & Milani, G. 2019. Earthquake-induced damage assessment and partial failure mechanisms of an italian medieval castle. Eng. Fail. Anal., 99, 292-309.

[7] Pepe, M., Pingaro, M., Trovalusci, P., Reccia, E., & Leonetti, L. 2020. Micromodels for the in-plane failure analysis of masonry walls: Limit analysis, FEM and FEM/DEM approaches. Frattura ed Integrita Strutturale, 14(51), 504-516

[8] Heyman, J. 1969. The safety of masonry arches, Int. J. Mech. Sci., 11 (4): 363-385,

[9] D'Ayala, D. & Casapulla, C. 2001. Limit state analysis of hemispherical domes with finite friction. In Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions, Guimarães (Portugal), 2001.

[10] Milani, E., Milani, G. & Tralli, A. 2008. Limit analysis of ma-sonry vaults by means of curved shell finite elements and homogenization, Int. J. Solids Struct., 45: 5258-5288, 2008.

[11] Pavlovic, M., Reccia, E. & Cecchi, A. 2016. A procedure to in-vestigate the collapse behavior of masonry domes: some meaningful cases. Int. J. Archit. Herit., 10(1): 67-83.

[12] Rossi, M., Calderini, C., Di Napoli, B., Cascini, L., & Portioli, F. 2020. Structural analysis of masonry vaulted staircases through rigid block limit analysis. Structures, 23, 180-190. doi:10.1016/j.istruc.2019.10.015

[13] O’Dwyer, D. 1999. Funicular analysis of masonry vaults, Comp. Struct., 73(1-5): pp. 187-197.

[14] Block, P. & Ochserdorf, J.A. 2007. Thrust network analysis: a new methodology for three dimensional equilibrium, J. IASS, 48(3): 167-173.

[15] Angelillo, M, Babilio, E. & Fortunato, A. 2013. Singular stress fields for masonry-like vaults. Continuum Mech. Thermod., 25: 423-441.

[16] Cazzani, A., Malagù, M. & Turco, E. 2016. Isogeometric anal-ysis: a powerful numerical tool for the elastic analysis of historical masonry arches, Continuum Mech. Thermodyn, 28: 139–156.

[17] Chiozzi, A., Malagù, M., Tralli, A. & Cazzani A. 2016. Arch-NURBS: NURBS-Based Tool for the Structural Safety As-sessment of Masonry Arches in MATLAB, J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 30(2): # 04015010-1-11.

[18] Schueremans, L. & Van Genechten, B. 2009. The use of 3D-laser scanning in assessing the safety of masonry vaults. A case study on the church of Saint-Jacobs. Optics Lasers Eng., 47: 329-335.

[19] Castellazzi, G., D’Altri, A. M., de Miranda, S. & Ubertini, F. 2017. An innovative numerical modeling strategy for the structural analysis of historical monumental buildings, Eng. Struct., 132: 229–248.

[20] Napolitano, R. & Glisic, B. 2019. Methodology for diagnosing crack patterns in masonry structures using photogramme-try and distinct element modeling, Eng. Struct., 181: 519–528.

[21] Argiolas, R., Cazzani, A., Reccia, E. & Bagnolo,V. 2019. From LIDAR data towards HBIM for structural evaluation, IS-PRS Archives, 42: 125-132.

[22] Armesto, J., Roca-Pardiñas, J., Lorenzo, H. & Arias, P. 2010. Modelling masonry arches shape using terrestrial laser scanning data and nonparametric methods, Eng. Struct., 32(2): 607–615.

[23] Cazzani, A., Grillanda, N., Milani, G., Pintus, V. & Reccia, E. Numerical insights on the structural assessment of typical historical masonry vaults of Cagliari, in Proceedings of 17th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference - 17th IB2MaC 2020, submitted

[24] N. Grillanda, A. Chiozzi, F. Bondi, A. Tralli, F. Manconi, F. Stochino, and A. Cazzani. Numerical insights on the structural assessment of historical masonry stellar vaults: The case of Santa Maria del Monte in Cagliari, Continuum Mech. Thermodyn., doi:10.1007/s00161-019-00752-8

[25] Piegl L & Tiller W. The NURBS Book. Berlin: Springer; 1995.

[26] Chiozzi A, Milani G, Tralli A. 2017. A Genetic Algorithm NURBS-based new approach for fast kinematic limit analysis of masonry vaults. Comput Struct; 182:187–204.

[27] Chiozzi A, Milani G, Grillanda N, Tralli A. 2003. Fast and reliable limit analysis approach for the structural assessment of FRP-reinforced masonry arches, Key Eng. Mater., 747:196–203.

[28] Grillanda N, Chiozzi A, Milani G, Tralli A. 2019. Collapse behavior of masonry domes under seismic loads: an adaptive NURBS kinematic limit analysis approach. Eng. Struct., 200: 109517.

[29] Grillanda N, Chiozzi A, Milani G, Tralli A. 2019. On Collapse Behavior of Reinforced Masonry Domes under Seismic Loads. Key Eng. Mater., 817:275–82.

[30] Iannuzzo, A., Angelillo, M., De Chiara, E., De Guglielmo, F., De Serio, F., Ribera, F., et al. 2108. Modelling the cracks produced by settlements in masonry structures, Meccanica, 53:1857–73.

[31] Tralli, A., Chiozzi, A., Grillanda, N., & Milani, G. 2109. Masonry structures in the presence of foundation settlements and unilateral contact problems. Int. J. Solids Struct. doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2019.12.005.

[32] Milani, G., & Taliercio, A. (2015). In-plane failure surfaces for masonry with joints of finite thickness estimated by a method of cells-type approach. Comp. Struct., 150, 34-51.