Effect of Brick Arrangement on The Load-Bearing Capacity of a Semi-Circular Brick Masonry Barrel Vault: Experimental Study and Micro-Modelling

Throughout Iran’s architectural history, spaces have been covered with structures known as barrel vaults. A vault’s behaviour is determined by its construction method and brick arrangement. The Chapileh, Roman, and Persian methods are among the conventional construction methods in this respect. This paper investigates the effect of brick arrangement on constructing semi-circular brick masonry barrel vaults through experimental studies and numerical simulations. To this end, the structural behaviour of semi-circular barrel vaults with Chapileh and Roman brick arrangements was evaluated when subjected to gravitational loads in the span’s middle. The numerical simulation was performed in the ANSYS code using the nonlinear finite element method with micro-modelling. Additionally, the Willam-Warnke failure criterion was used, suitable for the precise modelling of masonry materials. The Roman-textured vault exhibited superior structural performance compared to the Chapileh-textured vault. The bearing capacity of the semi-circular brick masonry barrel vault was ۳۸۳% higher than that of a comparable Chapileh-textured vault.

Effect of Brick Arrangement on The Load-Bearing Capacity of a Semi-Circular Brick Masonry Barrel Vault: Experimental Study and Micro-Modelling Keywords:

Barrel vault , Semi-circular shape , Brick arrangement , Nonlinear finite elements simulation , Micro-modelling