Piehler, J.

Experimental investigation of Gothic revival vault structures

Abstract eng:
From the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century, many buildings were erected in the Neo-Gothic style. Compared to the Gothic constructions the vaults are very lightweight and thin. These relatively fragile systems tend to show systemic damages in the form of significant crack patterns. For the structural safety of these vaults the horizontal displacement of the abutments is vitally important. For the investigation and reviewing it is necessary to use realistic approaches concerning to the stiffness of all members like exterior walls, buttress piers, foundations inclusive foundation soil. This article describes a loading test on a vault construction to study the system behavior of a neo-gothic vault including the supports in a non-critical load range. While the test it was possible to measure significant structure reactions due to a low horizontal load in the region of the abutments. These measured data were used for more realistic assumptions of the existing member stiffness in further numerical models. The loading test and the numerical investigations contribute to understand the system behavior of Neo-Gothic vaults and their supports.

Contributors:

Kapphahn, G.

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK

Conference Title:

Insights and Innovations in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation

Conference Title:

Sixth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation

Conference Venue:

Cape Town, South Africa

Conference Dates:

2016-09-05 / 2016-09-07