Conservation-Oriented Structural Analysis of the Spire of Barcelona Cathedral

Abstract

The spire of Barcelona cathedral suffered from severe problems due to the corrosion of the steel ties used in reinforcing its stone masonry beams. Wide visible cracks were noticed in the stone beams and large parts were detached. Therefore, the full spire was dismantled and reconstructed using titanium ties to eliminate the corrosion problem. A finite element model of the spire was created and analyzed using DIANA software to support this decision. This analysis helped in understanding the role and strength contributions of these ties in resisting the applied loads on the spire, specifically, the lateral loads of earthquakes and wind. A nonlinear static (pushover) analysis was carried out to assess the spire capacity under the lateral loads. A number of constitutive models for modeling the masonry behavior were tried. Also, a number of seismic actions patterns were considered. As a main conclusion of this study, the ties were highly needed to carry the tensile stresses caused by earthquakes and wind loads. Therefore, in the reconstruction of the spire, such ties must be kept in the masonry beams.