ABSTRACT
From the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of World War I, many buildings were built in the Neo-Gothic style regarding the former needs to save material. These lightweight and thin vaults are often fragile support systems. They tend to show systemic damages in the form of significant crack patterns in the vault caps and arches. In a research project typical damages of Neo-Gothic vaulted structures were analyzed with the objective to find sustainable and rehabilitative measures. In this context numerical and experimental studies have been carried out on a reference structure. The geometry model of the finite element simulation based on measured values of a 3D laser scanning. The system behavior was studied experimentally in the non-critical load range with a load test for the calibration of this numerical model. In this paper the main topics of this research project are presented.
