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Masonry vaults are widespread and characteristic structural elements of our 

built heritage  since  many  centuries,  but  for  a  very  long  time  they  were  built  only  based 

upon  the experience  and  the  proportional  analysis  of  previous  positive  examples.  Since 

the  Hooke’s observations, in 17th century, about the shape of the catenary, and the first 

graphical analyses of 18th century, the tools for their “scientific” calculation have developed 

quickly [1], mainly to assess the stability of already existing structures rather than for the 

prevision of the future behaviour  of  new  vaults.  Despite  the  great  progress  in  this  field, 

ordinary  programs  for  the  static  and  seismic  assessment  of  masonry  buildings  often 

disregard  the  vaults  structural  role and the professionals sometimes underestimate it, also 

due to the lack of attention dedicated to these structures by the technical codes. Therefore it 

seems  now  important  to  reconnect  the elements of this modelling historical evolution, to 

compare  the  different  methods  and  to  find  an  equilibrium  between  complexity  and 

reliability,  making  it  accessible  also  to  the  common  professional  use,  whose  effects  on 

preservation are important.  

To  this  aim,  a  pavilion  vault  was  chosen  as  a  reference,  with  given  geometries 

and materials  features,  and  the  different  methods  were  applied.  On  one  side,  traditional 

methods  were  chosen:  the  graphic  Méry  method  [2]  and  the  static  theorem  of  limit 

analysis  [3]  have been  applied  to  a  system  of  2D  arches  composing  the  vault.  On  the 

other  side,  a  2D  Finite  Element  Model  and  the  edge  cutting  ChronoEngine  Distinct 

Element Model [4] have been also tested, under the same conditions. The influence of the 

brick  pattern  on  the  structural behaviour  have  been  considered,  conveniently  defining 

the  arches  decomposition  in  the  traditional  methods  and  the  blocks  division  in  the 

Distinct  Element  Method.  In  all  cases, calculations have been made changing both values 

and positions of the loads. The results are compared  both  in  terms  of  stresses  inside  the 

masonry  and  in  terms  of  deformation  of  the structural  elements,  evaluating  the  types 

of  information  and  detail  that  the  different approaches can supply. The results of the 

advanced  numerical  methods  allow  to  assess  the validity  of  the  traditional  approaches. 

On  the  other  side,  the  possible  contribution  of  the traditional  methods  to  the  calibration 

of  the  parameters  for  the  numerical  models  is  also discussed.

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