Static behavior of the ‘long' or 'short’ barrel vaults

"his paper deals with the static behaviour of barrel vaults. Vaults are modeled as linear elastic shells with single curvature. Starting from the assumption that in the barrel vaults two orders of mono-dimensional interacting beams exist (an order of straight beams in the longitudinal direction and an order of arches in the transversal direction), a semi-analytical approximate solution is proposed, with the aim of investigating the role of the mechanical and geometrical characteristics of the vault. According to the solution found, a classification in 'short' or 'long' barrel vaults is proposed, as it occurs for the beams on elastic soil. Graphical abaci are obtained to facilitate the classification. The 'short' or 'long' behaviour, unlike that of cylindrical circular shells, does not depend on the material characteristics, but only on the geometrical characteristics and on the load distribution of the external load."