Unconventional cases of the stone vaults

The evaluation of the technical condition of vaulted structures is the principal issue in the survey of historical buildings. It is also important to understand how any thrust system works, and what functions it performs. However, apart from visual inspection it is necessary to make apertures in vaulted ceilings and determine the methods of support. It is also very important to determine the strength characteristics of masonry. Unconventional cases should always be taken into account during the inspection of masonry vaulted structures. It needs to carefully conduct their inspection with the mandatory breaking opening and strength analysis based on numerical simulation before starting of all the reconstruction, restoration and repair. The use of modern program complexes in the simulation, such as Ansys, Abaqus, allows improving the quality of performed work.