Vault Construction Research Articles

Automating historical centering-minimizing masonry vaulting strategies: Applications to cooperative robotic construction

This paper investigates the feasibility of adapting ancient historical construction techniques to cooperative robotic assembly methods to minimize centering requirements in masonry vaults. First, an overview of seven historical techniques is presented. Next, a classification framework is introduced to evaluate the automation potential of these methods, identifying the rib network as the most promising candidate. This is followed by two computational case studies on the cooperative robotic construction of planar masonry arches and multi-arch rib networks. These studies evaluated the impact of robotic reachability and support payload on the feasibility of centering-free construction. A conclusion based only on these simulation results is that high-payload fixed robots, in comparison to medium-payload mobile setups, allow for the construction of larger and more complex rib structures. This research is of relevance to architects and engineers interested in using a cooperative robotic fabrication framework to reduce centering in masonry vault construction.

A Geometric Analysis of Masonry Sail Vaults at the Magistral Palace, Valletta, for the Study of Maltese Stereotomy

The research deals with an interesting interdisciplinary case study for the knowledge and dissemination of masonry sail vaults in Malta between the 16th and the 17th centuries. In particular, it focuses on the sail vaults of the Magistral Palace, which have a distinctive structure. Based on a digital survey, the necessary data was extrapolated to critically analyse the geometry, through drawing and three-dimensional modelling. The paper, therefore, presents graphical and geometric investigations, which complement the study of the history of the Magistral Palace. Comparisons with the Maltese architectural context between the 16th and 17th centuries show the use of different solutions for the construction of sail vaults, according to different geometries. This implies knowledge of the international debate on the theory of stonecutting at the time.

The Geometric System of the Nave Vault of the Church on the Hill of Sighişoara

The Geometric System of the Nave Vault of the Church on the Hill of Sighişoara. The literature on the methods of late Gothic net vault constructions mainly accentuates ideas, which presume that the initial conditions of the design are orderly. However, in the case of buildings of multiple building periods, this is rarely the case. In the present article, we present the point cloud-based geometric analysis of the net vault system of the Church on the Hill of Sighişoara. Our results highlight that contrary to the generally accepted theories, the construction of a net vault is not necessarily initiated with the plan of the rib system, and that the underlying principle organising the whole system’s geometry is not always the plan pattern. Our case study also exemplifies how the Gothic principles of unity and division still blend with the ideas of separation and addition, even in a late Gothic hall church with direct connections to the guild of Landshut. Keywords: masonry ribbed net vault; late Gothic vault construction; geometric analysis; Church on the Hill of Sighişoara; Gothic construction principles

A Self-contained Stellar Vault Construction Method. The Vault of the Matthias Oratorio in the Inner City Parish Church of Budapest

In the present study, we analysed the laser-scanned point cloud of the stellar vault of the Inner City Parish Church of Budapest's Matthias oratorio. Our analysis concerned the global geometry of the rib network, as well as the webbing. During the study of the rib system, we reconstructed a probable construction method of the late 15th – early 16th-century vault, which seems to be a self-contained construction system in regard to the rib system's plan, the height of the junction points and the curvature of the individual ribs. We found, that to the latter the widely known "Prinzipalbogen" theory applies, however, the "theory of the longest route", which is often mentioned together with the former, most likely was not used. Mapping the webbing and the ribs allowed us to examine the building technique of the webs too.

STUDIES ON RADIATION SHIELDING PROPERTIES OF NEWLY DEVELOPED HIGH-DENSITY CONCRETE FOR ADVANCED RADIOTHERAPY FACILITIES.

The linear attenuation coefficients and tenth-value layers are determined experimentally for the newly developed Cement-based high-density Concrete and Fly-Ash-based Geopolymer high-density Concrete using Red-Mud-based synthetic aggregate made up from industrial waste. Linear attenuation coefficients were determined in narrow and broad beam conditions for five megavoltage X-ray photon beam energies, i.e. 6, 10, 15 MV, and 6 and 10 MV-FFF generated by Varian TrueBeam medical linear accelerator. These materials are found to be more effective in radiation shielding when compared with ordinary concrete and hematite ore-based high-density concrete making it a useful construction material for radiotherapy accelerator vaults. Similar values of linear attenuation coefficients are observed for all the above-mentioned X-ray beam energies when cement is replaced with fly-ash in ordinary concrete, hematite-based high-density concrete and red-mud-based high-density concrete, making it a good eco-friendly alternative of cement and useful for the construction of radiotherapy vaults.

Configuration processing and construction of large-span karbandi vaults: a case of the karbandi vaulting of Haj-Mohammad-Qoli Timche in Tabriz Historic Bazaar

PurposeThis paper aims at discovering the traditional techniques of Persian architecture for covering large-span spaces with a kind of ribbed vault titled “Karbandi”. This structure is generated by intersecting several arches with a harmonic stellar geometry. Preliminary studies show that span factor affects the structural form of karbandi and large-span cases, despite similar architectural forms, have different structural systems and specific construction methods. The main focus of this paper is how karbandi has been designed and built on large-spans. To answer this question, the configuration and construction of a large-span karbandi in Tabriz Bazaar were recognized.Design/methodology/approachData collection of the research was initially done in three parallel directions through the archival study of restoration documents, direct observation of the corpus of the vaultings and interviews with the master mason of the Haj-Mohammad-Qoli Timche restoration team. Then by cross-referencing the gathered data, the construction process of the karbandi was simulated in Rhino 6 and Grasshoppers software and its BIM-M models were created in three levels of development: LOD300, LOD350 and LOD400. In the next step, the preliminary BIM-M models of the karbandi were presented to the interviewed mason and revised and completed based on his comments.FindingsAnalyzing the BIM models by reverse engineering, resulted in (1) Discovering a unique self-supporting masonry construction method applied for the erection of karbandi vaulting on large-spans. (2) Finding the effect of scale factor on the architectural and structural form of the karbandi vault. (3) Discovering the connection types of the karbandi vault based on the construction details.Originality/valueDespite the wide applications of karbandi vaults throughout history, very little information of their construction techniques is available. The techniques have mostly been experientially and orally passed down from masters to apprentices and rarely been documented. The quest to design and construct a karbandi vault is therefore like solving a puzzle whose most important guide is historical cases. Due to the geometric complexity of karbandi and its ability to cover large-span spaces, solving the puzzle can lead to achieving some technical ideas for masonry cross-ribbed vaulting. A great riddle of the karbandi vaults is how to design and build them on a large span.

RECA: Relation Extraction Based on Cross-Attention Neural Network

Extracting entities and relations, as a crucial part of many tasks in natural language processing, transforms the unstructured text information into structured information and provides corresponding data support for knowledge graph (KG) and knowledge vault (KV) construction. Nevertheless, the mainstream relation-extraction methods, the pipeline method and the joint method, ignore the dependency between the subject entity and the object entity. This work introduces a pre-trained BERT model and a dilated gated convolutional neural network (DGCNN) as an encoder to distinguish the long-range semantics representation from the input sequence. In addition, we propose a cross-attention neural network as a decoder to learn the importance of each subject word for each word of the input sequence. Experiments were undertaken with two extensive datasets, the New York Times Corpus (NYT) and WebNLG Corpus, and showed that our model performs significantly better than the CasRel model, outperforming the baseline by 1.9% and 0.7% absolute gain in terms of F1-score.

ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING: BOUNDARIES OF ACCEPTABLE RELATIONSHIP

With the emergence of the first organized societies and state formations, construction activity was inextricably linked with the methods of material realization. Even when there were no separate professions of civil engineer and architect, quite complex structures were erected, the construction of arches and vaults allowed to cover huge spaces. Professional skills in the field of construction developed in the process of building associations, so architecture and the beginnings of civil engineering intertwined into a single conglomeration of empirical knowledge passed from teachers to students and consolidated directly in the constructed facilities. The strength of the structure was achieved through the balancing of the structural system and proven in practice methods of load distribution. Construction techniques passed from one era to another, taking into account differences in cultures and worldviews. Each historical culture developed its own style, which reflected the peculiarities of its worldview. The ideological and symbolic content of architecture in those days, of course, dominated the means of functional organization and design solutions. Subsequently, architecture and civil engineering became separate disciplines, which were supplemented by additional ones. Initially, architectural education was provided within art academies, but with the advent of the first educational institutions that graduated civil engineers, it began to be provided there. At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, the rationalist approach to architecture became increasingly popular. When the final distinction between engineering and architectural training in universities took place, a number of both positive and negative consequences of this phenomenon emerged. Currently, the dominance of construction technology and the widespread introduction of standard architectural solutions have led to the idea that architects can be replaced by developers who need to complete any accelerated courses. To correct the situation at least to some extent, it is necessary to understand that technology exists for the implementation of architectural solutions, and not vice versa.

Strength capacity of prismatic specimens for masonry constructions made of concrete voussoirs

AbstractThis research shows the results of an experimental campaign of masonry specimens tested until failure. The masonry is made of special voussoirs for the construction of arches and vaults. The voussoirs were made of plain concrete. The experimental campaign focused on obtaining the flexural and the compressive strength of this type of masonry specimens. Specimens were subjected to compressive loads with different eccentricities to obtain the axial load–bending moment interaction diagrams, which indicate the strength of these pieces against eccentric compression. The ultimate purpose of this research is to foresee the behavior of structural elements, such as arches and lowered vaults with a circular directrix, built using this type of voussoirs. These structural elements aim to reintroduce anti‐funicular structural elements in bridges, culvert, tunnel, floor, and roof of buildings. Constructions that solve the basic needs of the population in any country. This innovative idea on a new block geometry, designed specifically for construction of arches, allows covering distances up to 6–7 m. The use of steel is not necessary; therefore, the risk of corrosion is eliminated. Finally, a study on the use of this new masonry type on the statics of arches is assessed.

Securing Fuzzy Vault Enabled Authentication in Body Area Networks-Based Smart Healthcare

The emergence of body area networks (BANs) has paved the way for real-time sensing of human biometrics in addition to remote control of smart wireless medical devices, which in turn are beginning to revolutionize the smart healthcare industry. However, due to their limited power and computational capabilities, they are vulnerable to a myriad of security attacks. To secure BAN sensors against these threats processor-intensive cryptographic techniques need to be avoided as they are not suitable in this context. This article focuses on authentication service for BAN sensors and proposes an original scheme named “RAFV: Rotational Assisted Fuzzy Vaults” to harden the security of any authentication solution using the fuzzy vault construction approach. The evaluation results have shown that RAFV can successfully conceal the secret of the vault even if the locking elements are known to the adversary. Also, RAFV may improve upon communication overhead by enabling a reduction in the size of the vault without compromising its security. It has achieved all of this while remaining competitive with regards to additional computational overhead.

Auguste Fabre and the Construction of Tile Vaults in France. The Industrialization of a Traditional Technique

ABSTRACT Auguste Fabre was a French contractor specialized in the construction of masonry vaults. He founded his company in 1896 and patented different systems of light and economic vaults, among them one for tile vaults. Fabre built thousands of vaults in France, Belgium and Algeria, some of them of great importance, such as the dome of the Petit Palais for the international exhibition in Paris in 1900, or the dome of the Congo Museum in Tervuren (Belgium). Historicism was a breeding ground for the construction of vaults, however, there is scarce technical documentation about them in the journals of the time. This paper explains the work of Auguste Fabre, his patents and some of his buildings, focusing in particular on the construction of tile vaults

Application of a combined precast and in-situ-cast construction method for large-span underground vaults

Exploitation of large underground space calls for innovative structures and construction methods. In this paper, a combined precast and in-situ-cast method for construction of large-span underground vaults is proposed. It was applied to an engineering example in the form of the vault of the Wuzhong Road Metro Station in Shanghai. This vault consists of 56 elements. Construction of an element involves the following steps. Firstly, upper ribbed arch segments are precast in a factory. After hardening, they are transported to the site and then assembled to three-hinged arches. The latter serve as a permanent formwork. Then, steel cages are made, followed by in-situ casting of concrete. As the concrete hardens, an integral arch, representing an element of the vault, is obtained. It carries the dead load of the covering soil and the overload on top of it. Structural analysis of this example is based on transfer relations, representing analytical solutions of the linear theory of slender circular arches. From the viewpoint of engineering practice and computational analysis, the advantages of the combined precast and in-situ-cast method over the in-situ-cast method are as follows: (i) the construction period is shortened by 50%, (ii) a fair-faced concrete surface of the vault is produced, rendering decoration work superfluous, and (iii) the maximum bending moment of an element of the studied vault is reduced by 40%.

Development of technology for the construction of heat-efficient monolithic vaults from basalt fiber concrete

The paper considers the issue of erection of structures of buildings and structures from monolithic dispersed-reinforced concrete, capable of performing not only a load-bearing, but also a protective function. The analysis of a number of dispersed-reinforced concretes with both structural and thermal insulation properties has been carried out. An increase in thermal efficiency is expected through the use of industrial porous aggregates. The technical indicators of samples of basalt-fiber-reinforced concrete with fillers: perlite and foam glass have been experimentally investigated. Experimental relationships are obtained that characterize the compressive and bending strength, as well as the thermal conductivity of the materials under study.

Performance-Based Computational Design and Fabrication for A Resilient Solution: Dredged Material for Masonry Vault Construction

Performance-Based Computational Design and Fabrication for A Resilient Solution: Dredged Material for Masonry Vault Construction

Robotic vault: a cooperative robotic assembly method for brick vault construction

Geometrically complex masonry structures built with traditional techniques typically require either temporary scaffolding or skilled masons. This paper presents a novel fabrication process for the assembly of full-scale masonry vaults without the use of falsework. The fabrication method is based on a cooperative assembly approach in which two robots alternate between placement and support to first build a stable central arch. Subsequently, the construction is continued individually by the robots - building out from the central arch based on an interlocking diagonal brick sequence. This proposed method is validated through its successful implementation in a full-scale vault structure consisting of 256 glass and concrete standardized bricks. The paper includes strategies for developing the design, sequencing, and robotic assembly methods used to build the vault.

The Racetrack Oval Frame Vault of Villa Borromeo in Cassano d\u2019Adda

The paper describes the analysis of the oval frame vault of the ballroom of Villa Borromeo in Cassano d’Adda (Milan), one of the most important, yet not deeply studied, countryside villas of the Adda family. The vault is a particular example of a frame vault on an oval plan, where the main elements that characterize the space are the skene arches and the curved lunettes. The article sheds light on the constructive and geometric genesis of this particular type of vaulting, which was a common construction practice of architects and builders in the Modern Age in Northern Italy. The analysis of the vault geometries and construction techniques is carried out through a geometric and photogrammetric survey, the elaboration of drawings, and a 3D model.

The Structural Effects of Micro-Geometry on Masonry Vaults

Masonry vaults are able to withstand their dead load and external forces thanks to their curved surface, therefore geometry plays a major role in their structural behaviour. Besides the well-known effects of the macro-geometry (overall shape and dimensions), micro-geometry (details of the masonry apparatus) is also expected to play a key role. The study seeks to determine the advantages (constructional and structural) that a specific masonry apparatus offered for simple forms like barrel vaults and more complex forms like cross vaults. It is carried out, firstly, through a critical review of the European technical literature concerning vault construction with particular focus on brick laying techniques; then, numerical approach is adopted to scientifically investigate the role of micro-geometry on the static behaviour of barrel and cross vaults subjected to self-weight. Comparison of results allows observing different structural behaviour (displacement field, elastic stiffness, reaction forces) for different brick patterns and provides a scientific validation to some speculations found in historical technical literature.

Making grammars for material and tectonic complexity: An example of a thin-tile vault

Shape grammars are a framework to view design as non-deterministic, creative, visual computation, and making as the deterministic execution of a design in the material world. Making grammars conceive of making as creative, multi-sensory, material computation. However, examples in the literature on making grammar are insufficiently complex to demonstrate the creativity of non-visual senses in making. This paper develops a making grammar for thin-tile vault construction as a sensory ethnography to ‘show making’ to designers as being a creative practice involving visual and non-visual senses. To do so, the role of drawing in shape grammar and making grammar is differentiated, and environmental psychology is used to develop a framework for the use of drawing to depict multi-sensory processes in making grammar.

Aftershock fragility assessment of Italian cast–in–place RC industrial structures with precast vaults

Through a fragility analysis carried out with different probabilistic methods, the vulnerability of an Italian cast-in-place RC industrial structure with precast reinforced hollow brick light-weight vaults is evaluated via nonlinear analyses. After a brief description of the vault construction system, a typical case study built in the 1960s is considered and the influence of FE numerical modelling through three different representations of the vault system is assessed. Fragility curves are calculated by Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), with three damage limit threshold values corresponding to local limit conditions regarding bending or shear that first occur in a few elements, as determined through pushover analyses. A comparison of fragility curves in the two horizontal directions (X–Y) for the three models is reported.Concerning the model with the greatest probability of collapse, seismic sequence effects on structural damage with the same ground motions for mainshock and aftershock are taken into account. Double Incremental Dynamic Analysis (D-IDA), with the mainshock represented by several fixed percentages of Near Collapse PGAs previously evaluated in X–Y directions and scaled aftershocks, is performed and compared to the IDA results. Aftershock fragility curves created with only the damage limit threshold value of Near Collapse are likened to the case that analyses a single seismic event (undamaged structure). Furthermore, ductility damage indices are calculated for maximum displacements obtained by each nonlinear dynamic analysis of IDA and D-IDA.

THE ASSESSMENT OF THE BAROQUE VAULT CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE BY SCAN-TO-BIM PROCESS: ST. BERNARD’S CHAPEL IN THE PLASY MONASTERY

Abstract. The article focuses on the analysis of the construction technique of the star vault designed by the famous Bohemian architect from the Baroque period, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. The vault covers St. Bernard’s Chapel in the Plasy Monastery and represents a masterpiece in Santini’s late career. The authors try to understand its construction technology with the help of modern surveying methods. The shape of the vault structure is complex, therefore a detailed geometrical survey of both intrados and extrados was performed. The data collected in situ, photogrammetric blocks, were used as a basis for the modeling of the vault shape. An accurate 3D model and HBIM of the structure were generated, using a novel Scan-to-BIM process based on the integrated use of a different Grade of Generation and primitive extraction to support the modeling. This survey is part of a program to implement a vault database addressed to detect permanencies and mutations in the construction techniques across Europe, that gives back unexpected, and mostly unknown, richness of vault construction patterns.