Experimental investigation of the deformability of the masonry vault in church historical building

Abstract

Masonry is a dominant material in historic buildings of architectural heritage. The investigation of masonry structures faces an issue of building a numerical model in engineering software systems, considering the question of studying ancient masonry, which is technologically different from the modern one. At the same time, vaults were extensively used in majority of types of roofing systems of historic buildings. The study area covers the mechanical properties of ancient masonry vaulted structure and ways of testing ancient brick samples to determine its more accurate behaviour and receive the information related to the deformability of such a complex structure. The main aim of this article is the survey of the masonry cloister vault of the historical building in order to receive the data on the specific deformation characteristics of the ancient masonry materials. Methods of the determination of the deformation properties of a masonry proposed in the building codes has uncertainties because it neglects the special aspects of the historic masonry. Thus, the need for conducting full-scale physical and numerical experiments of the masonry vault in church historical building for obtaining the actual data on the deformability of the ancient masonry structure appears urgent. Additionally, the experimental part of the research work on the object was carried out in two statements of the problem: the object was studied from the point of view of a homogeneous structure, videlicet the study of the vault itself was carried out, as well as a heterogeneous structure, in which the masonry elements (mortar and brick) were studied separately. The evaluation of data related to such structures is extremely important for the improvement of restoration techniques, maintaining and preventing possible critical situations associated with them. Moreover, the received data will allow to make adjustments in calculations considering the peculiar properties of material.

Keywords

• Masonry
• Cloister vault
• Dome
• Elastic modulus
• Residual deformations
• Compression test