Research on Architectural Form and Structural Performance of the Brick-Vault Hall Heritage in China. A case study of Yongzuo Temple

Abstract

The brick-vault hall building is a special type of architectural heritage in China, which is significantly different from the western masonry arch heritages in terms of architectural form, structure, construction technology and mechanical performance. After hundred years of natural disasters and human factors, these brick-vault hall buildings mostly have a lot of damages in different degrees. In order to understand the architectural form and the structural performance of this typical type of architectural heritage, the brick-vault hall of Yongzuo Temple was taken as an example to study. Based on the survey of three-dimensional laser scanner, the accurate geometrical dimension of the brick-vault hall of Yongzuo Temple was collected, the architectural form of this building and the relationship between the brick-vault hall building and the official-type timber structure were analyzed and illustrated. The material properties were observed with the on-site non-destructive testing method. Based on the above researches, the finite element model of the brick-vault hall of Yongzuo Temple was established with ANSYS, the structural performance of the brick-vault hall structure under the vertical load and the earthquake load were studied, respectively. Thus, the weak positions of the brick-vault hall of Yongzuo Temple were found out. The results can provide the basis for the conservation of this type of architectural heritage.

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