Vault Roof Research Articles

Cultural Exchanges between Macedonia and Thrace in the Fourth and Third Centuries BC

In the second half of the fourth and the first half of the third century B.C. elite burials in Macedonia and Thrace consisted of chamber tombs furnished with wooden or stone couches, vessels for eating and drinking, weapons, clothes, and jewels. Chamber tombs were usually covered with mounds and were accessible via built corridors. Macedonian tombs, however, were built underground while Thracian tombs were at ground level or higher. The Thracians preferred beehive tombs and corbel vault roofs, whereas Macedonian tombs were covered with the barrel vault, which was probably invented in Macedonia. The barrel vaults of Macedonian tombs were disguised behind elaborate architectural façades, but Thracian tombs generally lacked façades. The higher echelons of the Macedonian army complemented their defensive armor with iron pectorals carrying silver gilt decoration which were manufactured in Thrace or imitated Thracian models. After Philip II’s conquest of the Odrysian kingdom, the Macedonians introduced a burial ritual which involved transport amphorae, inspired by Thracian practice. The builders of Thracian tombs occasionally imitated the marble doors of Macedonian tombs. The drinking sets found in Thracian tombs have their closest parallels in Macedonia. The influence of Macedonian chamber tombs can be detected, among others, in the Naip tomb in southeastern Thrace and in a number of chamber tombs with barrel vaults in the Getic kingdom. The Sveshtari tomb, attributed to one of the rulers of the Getai, includes a wall-painting showing the ruler on horseback, wearing a ram’s horn over his right ear in imitation of Alexander the Great on the coinage of Lysimachos. This represents the pinnacle of Macedonian influence on the culture of Thrace.

Digital heritage construction: Testing the heritage value of construction documentation and building processes through Virtual Reality

This research paper examines the heritage value of construction documentation and processes via Virtual Reality (VR), with a focus on the Sydney Opera House (SOH). It underscores the importance of comprehending and documenting transient construction techniques for heritage valuation. Utilising VR, the study offers an immersive portrayal of the SOH's construction, emphasising its innovative methods, craftsmanship, and environmental challenges. The paper draws from the Digital Heritage Construction project, showcased at the Heritage Exposition of the ICOMOS General Assembly 2023. This project featured two VR simulations, developed through analysing 200 original shop drawings, historical photographs, and site minutes and reports. The first simulation illustrates the formwork systems used for the SOH's iconic sails, while the second elucidates the assembly methods for the precast vaulted roofs, including the operation of the telescopic erection arch and the installation of concrete segments. The paper examines the novelty of this approach through a survey conducted at the Heritage Exposition. Analysis of the survey's result reveals VR's effectiveness in deepening the appreciation of architectural heritage's intangible qualities, providing new insights into the historical construction processes of the building and their cultural significance.

Analysis of wind pressure characteristics of typical agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands

Existing studies about wind pressure on agricultural greenhouse buildings concentrate on the mean wind pressure while ignoring the systematic research on fluctuating wind pressure characteristics and the influence of roof shape on the wind pressure characteristics, which are closely associated with the wind-induced damage mechanism. In this study, two typical agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands are selected as prototypes to conduct pressure measurement experiments in the wind tunnel. Based on the wind pressure time series for the two greenhouses, the mean and fluctuating wind pressure distribution pattern and the localized high-pressure generation mechanism are analyzed. Then, the shape coefficient of the two greenhouses is compared in depth to the standards from four countries. Besides, wind pressure non-Gaussian determination criteria for agricultural greenhouse buildings considering the roof shape and wind directions are proposed. Lastly, the differences in wind pressure spectra on the roofs and walls of the two greenhouses are summarized. The results indicate the roof shape has a significant influence on the wind pressure characteristics. Compared with the pitched roof, the vaulted roof will increase the suction effect on the windward front zone and the middle area, mitigate the suction impact on the leeward roof, and weaken the wind pressure non-Gaussian characteristics. The experimental shape coefficient of the pitched-roof greenhouse is basically consistent with the standard from the U.S., while that of the vaulted-roof greenhouse has some deviation from the existing standards. The results provide a theoretical basis for the wind-resistant design of agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands.

Structural Assessment of a Water Reservoir Masonry Vaulted Roof from the Nineteenth Century

This article presents an experimental and numerical study on the structural safety of an old buried water reservoir built in the second half of the nineteenth century. The main goal of the study was to assess the feasibility of changing the reservoir roof from a garden with limited access to an outdoor exhibition or concert area, with an increase in service loads. The reservoir comprises a set of cylindrical vaults, built with rubble masonry and lime mortar, supported by a set of stone masonry arches and columns. Because no original design elements exist, the following methodology was followed: (1) a structural survey was first carried out for geometrical and material identification and for assessment of anomalies; (2) core samples were extracted from the vaulted roof to characterize the material properties of the rubble masonry and lime mortar; (3) a three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear finite element (FE) model of the structure was developed and used for structural safety verification; and (4) an in-situ static load test was carried out, in which the roof was subjected to a uniformly distributed load for assessment of its structural response and to validate the results from the numerical model. Overall, this study showed that the vaulted roof of the water reservoir has sufficient load capacity for its future use. Moreover, this work illustrates the application of a comprehensive methodology to assess the structural safety of a historical and very particular type of construction.

Estimating the received solar irradiances by traditional vaulted roofs using optimized neural networks and transfer learning

Traditional vaulted roof-forms have long been utilized in hot-desert climate for better indoor environmental quality. Unprecedently, this research investigates the possible contribution of machine learning to estimate the received solar irradiances by those roofs, based on simulation-derived training and testing datasets, where two algorithms were used to reduce their higher-dimensionality. Then, four models of ordinary least-squares and artificial neural networks were developed. Their ability to accurately estimate solar irradiances was confirmed, with R2 of 95.599–98.794% and RMSE of 12.437–23.909 Wh/m2. Transfer Learning was also applied to pass the stored knowledge of the best-performing model into another one for estimating the performance of new roof-forms. The results demonstrated that transferred models could provide better estimations with R2 of 87.416–97.889% and RMSE of 79.300–13.971 Wh/m2, compared to un-transferred models. Machine learning shall redefine the practice of building performance, providing architects with flexibility to rapidly make informed decisions during the early design stages.

カプ＝マルタンに構想されたル・コルビュジエの架構と装飾 その1：「蜂窩」の誕生とそのプロトタイプの生成

This paper examines the relationship with the ‘equipment’ incorporated into the structure by analyzing the creation and transformation of the lattice ‘honeycomb’ frame structure as a prototype in Cap-Martin. The ‘honeycomb’ frame has a genealogy in the ‘bottle rack’ frame and the walled vaulted roof of the ‘monol’ house but transforms into a framework structure based on a 226 cube. The frame structure allows free combinations of floor and ceiling surfaces and becomes a ‘new ornament’ for flexible adaptation to climate issues.

A STUDY ON TRADITIONAL HOUSES OF LAFTAN VILLAGE IN FARAH PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

This study examines the features of the traditional houses of Laftan village in Farah Province, Western Afghanistan. The composition of the Laftan village was found to be strongly related to the local climate, topography, and the mosques as the center of the community. All the houses in the village are one-story buildings constructed with pakhsa (pressed mud) wall and domical vault roofs of sun-dried bricks. The plans, cooling systems, and roof types of houses depend on the age of the houses.

Contrasting accuracies of single and ensemble models for predicting solar and thermal performances of traditional vaulted roofs

Traditional curved-roof forms have significant potentials in mitigating undesirable environmental impacts. Their performance predictions can be grouped into 4 trendlines of varying degrees of sophistication: theoretical abstracts, numerical methods, white-box simulations and black-box machine learning algorithms. Unprecedently, this research investigates the potential contribution of single- and ensemble-models to approximate the average hourly direct normal and diffuse horizontal irradiances (AHIRDirect, AHIRDiffuse) and cooling energy consumption (AHECCooling) of buildings topped with vaulted-roof forms of various configurations in Aswan, Egypt. Solar and energy simulations are first conducted to build essential datasets, which get pre-processed, before developing 8 single-models, representing 4 families of supervised single-algorithms: artificial neural networks, random forests, k-nearest neighbors and support vector regression. Voting ensemble-model is then created by combining the best-performing single-models. Lastly, the accuracies of all models are compared against simulation outputs. The results showed that no single-model could dominantly predict AHIRDirect, AHIRDiffuse and AHECCooling, obtaining tolerable R2 values, ranging from 97.017 to 61.913%, 92.782 to 43.986% and 99.341 to −9.219%, corresponding to RMSE values of 47.321 to 195.208, 17.457 to 53.617 and 0.002 to 0.032, respectively. Alternatively, voting ensemble-model acquired even better R2 values of 93.971, 93.047 and 97.276%, with RMSE values of 69.000, 17.249 and 0.004, respectively.

Estimating the Received Solar Irradiances by Traditional Vaulted Roofs Using Optimized Neural Networks and Transfer Learning

Estimating the Received Solar Irradiances by Traditional Vaulted Roofs Using Optimized Neural Networks and Transfer Learning

A new pushover procedure for estimating seismic demand of double-layer barrel vault roof with vertical double-layer walls

Recent investigations indicate that pushover methods have been widely applied for the seismic evaluation of common structures, whereas a limited number of researches have been conducted for the pushover analyses of space structures. In this study, a new and an appropriate approach, named the Dynamic Load Pattern-Based Pushover Analysis (DLP-PA), has been proposed for predicting the seismic demands of walled double-layer barrel vault roofs, referred to herein as DLRWs. In this method, invariant lateral and vertical force distributions are obtained by averaging the level forces from linear time history analyses of the space structures for a set of ground motions. In this procedure, the seismic demands are finally obtained by enveloping the results of conventional first-mode and the DLP-PA approaches. Numerical models with different geometric properties have been employed to study the efficiency of the proposed analysis method. The responses of models, using the proposed pushover analysis, are compared with incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) results. Also, the responses have been compared with those of the modal pushover analysis (MPA), extended N2 (EN2), modified consecutive modal pushover (MCMP), a single-analysis multi-mode pushover (SMP) and non-adaptive displacement-based pushover (NADP) procedures. The obtained results demonstrate that DLP-PA approach provide good estimation of seismic demand parameters.

Review: Framing the Church: The Social and Artistic Power of Buttresses in French Gothic Architecture

Review: <i>Framing the Church: The Social and Artistic Power of Buttresses in French Gothic Architecture</i>

RANS Simulation of Wind Loading on Vaulted Canopy Roofs

The use of isolated vaulted canopy roofs (VCR) for schools, emerging shelters, sports and recreational centers, among others, is quite popular worldwide. However, the design of such structures to resist wind effects is usually a problem due to the scarce technical information available in the literature. As an alternative resource, in the present research, wind effects on this type of structures immersed in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) are studied numerically by using the 3D Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) approach considering different aspect ratios and wind directions. Since wind tunnel testing information for these structures is limited, experimental results of a Gabled Canopy Roof (GCR) as well as some experimental results for VCR are used as a validation source for the numerical models. Based on this validation, the simulation results of the mean wind loads of VCR appear to be reasonably good. The numerical results are used to study the mean net-pressure coefficients (CPN) over the VCR models and to establish the theoretical bases for coding them. It was found that the CPN are very sensitive to the VCR curvature and wind direction (90°, 75°, and 60°), and to a less extent to the plan and elevation geometric ratios. Further, it was also found that the use of GCR CPN for the design of VCR, as is usually done in professional practice, could lead to important differences in the magnitude of pressure coefficients and pressure distribution regarding actual VCR CPN and its distribution. A detailed analysis of the CPN for VCRs is presented.

Pier Luigi Nervi’s design process of hangars

AbstractThe objectives of this paper are to report the construction process of hangars in Orvieto and Orbetello by the construction company of Nervi and Bartoli, and to analyze the formation process of the design philosophy proposed by Nervi through a model experiment conducted on both hangars. Nervi initially attempted to design a hangar with pin joints. This indicates that although Nervi was initially uncertain of the structural safety of a vault roof with rigid joints, he eventually understood its structural safety through experiments. In conclusion, Nervi arrived at a hyperstatic structure of the diagonal rib vault which consisted of crossing each arch in the design process of the hangar in three phases. Furthermore, the joint between the roof composed of them and the pillar is ultimately rigidly joined instead of pin junctions after sketching the relevant plans. Nervi’s design philosophy is to connect each member with a rigid joint, a solid monolithic structure, that is, to constitute a hyperstatic structure, which was seen in the design process of the airplane hangar.

Seismic collapse assessment of double-layer barrel vault roofs with double-layer vertical walls

Double-layer barrel vault roofs with double-layer vertical walls are frequently used as a structural system for highly important public buildings; therefore, their seismic design needs special considerations. In this article, the seismic collapse behavior of these structures, used as a lateral load-resisting system, is evaluated by carrying out incremental dynamic analysis. For this purpose, different rise-to-span and height-to-span ratios are considered for the roofs and the walls, respectively. The structures are first designed in accordance with Iranian design codes and then they are modeled in OpenSees. The material and geometric nonlinearities are considered in the analyses, including the buckling response of the compression members. At the next stage, the models are subjected to incremental dynamic analysis and their median collapse capacities are extracted. Collapse margin ratios of various structures are finally derived, following FEMA-P695 methodology, and compared against the established acceptable limits. The obtained results show that collapse of the structures occurs mainly due to the buckling-mode failure of the roof. The collapse performance of the structures with large rise-to-span ratio of roofs and large height-to-span ratio of walls is unacceptable.

Cosmic ray tracking to monitor the stability of historical buildings: a feasibility study

A cosmic ray muon detection system is proposed for stability monitoring in the field of civil engineering, in particular for the static monitoring of historical buildings, where conservation constraints are severe and the time evolution of the deformation phenomena under study may be of the order of months or years. The stability monitoring of the wooden vaulted roof of the Palazzo della Loggia, located in the town of Brescia, Italy, has been considered as a case study. The feasibility, as well as the performance and limitations of a stability monitoring system based on cosmic ray tracking have been studied by Monte Carlo simulations. A study of possible systematic uncertainties is presented along with a realistic design for the construction of a measurement system prototype.

Parametric investigation of traditional vaulted roofs in hot-arid climates

In the Mediterranean and North African regions, traditional vaulted roof forms have been widely used due to their significant influence on enhancing thermal indoor conditions. This research parametrically investigates the thermal performance of vaulted roofs, seeking a better understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the solar irradiance received by these roofs and the resulting energy consumption in the hot-arid city of Aswan (23.58oN), Egypt. The methodological procedure is realized through two phases. The annual simulations of solar irradiance and energy consumption are carried out in the first phase, where the quantitative performance of 2310 different cases are predicted in terms of six vaulted roof forms against eleven key influencing variables. The unsupervised technique of Principal Component Analysis is used in the second phase to reduce the higher dimensionality of the resulting dataset and extract important information from newly established orthogonal principal components. The outcomes of this work aim to provide architects and practitioners with an optimized dataset to use in the design and application of vaulted roof forms and support decision makers addressing the development strategies by providing essential data for setting regulations of newly built environments in harsh hot-arid contexts.

A STUDY OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TRADITIONAL HOUSES WITH DOMICAL VAULT ROOFS IN IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN

This study examines the distribution of traditional houses with domical vault roofs in Eastern Iran and Western Afghanistan to determine its boundary as well as the factors that impact their distribution. High-resolution satellite images, old photographs and literature from Iran, and satellite images and data from field surveys in Afghanistan have been used to determine their distribution. The findings of the study include maps showing the distribution of traditional houses with domical vault roofs which suggest that climatic and cultural factors are significant in determining prevalent types of roofs.

Yallahs Bay: Five Sonnets

If I could be honest, I would write about love.I heard it in the congregation’s singingand the piano’s holy song. It sailed abovethe vaulted roof and found the June-plums strungon their branches, s...

REALIZATION OF THE STANDARD CABINET AS THE “EQUIPMENT” BY LE CORBUSIER:

This paper aims to clarify the spatial composition of the standard cabinets as the “equipment” by Le Corbusier (1887-1965), in order to discuss the revolution of the notion of interior “decor” in the 20th century. At first, we pick up the discourse concerning the standard cabinets in the architectural projects for private houses, and classify them as the methodology of interior setting of a building (Chapter 2). Next, we extract the case examples of the studies of the cabinets from all Le Corbusier's private house projects, and clarify the secular change of the realization methods of the cabinets (Chapter 3). Finally, we discuss the reasons and the implications of such a transition about the spatial composition of houses (Chapter 4). Le Corbusier has already proposed a prototype of interior life space in the occation of the construction of the pavilion L'Esprit Nouveau in 1925. At that time, he mentioned three methods of setting the standard cabinets: to incorporate (“incorporer”) into the wall - cabinet (in) -, to put (“appuyer”) on the wall - cabinet (app) -, and to separate (“disposer”) from the wall － cabinet (dis) -. However, although he replaced the stylized furniture with a standardized mass production cabinets, he could not realize from the biginning all three types of the cabinets : cabinet (in), cabinet (app), and cabinet (dis). In the private house projects from the 1920s to the 1930s, cabinet (app) was often applied due to the restrictions on site conditions and the requests of daily life from the owners. This is methodologically the same as the setting of the conventional decorative arts. Houever, what Le Corbusier aimed was the cabinet (dis) as partition separaterd frome the wall to escape from the trational furniture as the decorative arts. It was greatly affected by the opportunities of the mass-produced housing researches after the First World War and of constructions at the remote locations. That is, it was necessary for the architect to detach the cabinets from the immovable wall surface in order to automatically set up them without controlling all construction processes on the spot far from the architect. It was also partly effective to answer the details of various requests of the owners. Such a cabinet (dis) has been continuously studied after the Second World War, and finally, it was not only independent from the wall, but also it was itself being studied as movable cabinets. On the other hand, the cabinet integrated with the wall, which could not be realized in the 1920s, was examined by houses with vault roofs. Unlike houses with pillars and floors as structural framework, Le Corbusier examined the cabinet incorporated into the wall, due to the large number of walls supporting the vault roof. Such a cabinet (in) was pursued further in India under the tropical climatic conditions, for the necessity of ventilation not obstructed by furniture. The realization of the standard cabinets by Le Corbusier does not develop linearly, but expands to the both poles while continuing to the methodology of the decorative arts. Although this result seemingly contradicts, whether movable cabinet or incorporated cabinet, it can be thought that Le Corbusier's studies of the standard cabinet was the research of a new "wall".

A STUDY ON DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSES WITH DOMICAL VAULT ROOFS IN HERAT CITY - AFGHANISTAN

Traditional houses in Western Afghanistan have domical vault roofs. Such houses are not limited to the Old City but are instead distributed throughout the municipal area of Herat. For this study, we used satellite images from 2017 to locate 11,754 houses with domical vault roofs within the municipal area of Herat and then calculated their density. Field surveys were conducted to investigate the sites with a higher density of such houses. The study identified seven high-density sites and classified them into three groups; 1) monumental, 2) pre-1960s old residential villages along canals and 3) post-1960s residential settlements at the urban fringe.