ABSTRACT
A significant part of the world cultural heritage is represented by masonry buildings. Many of them are characterized by a complex architecture like as the religious buildings. Classical theory is a typology of vaults typically used as roofs in the religious buildings. In some cases, neglecting the tensile strength, a theoretical collapse could be expected already under gravity loads. The effects of tensile strength assumption are synthetically discussed both on failure domains and on collapse condition of an arch element. The chapter focuses on a particular typology of barrel vault. The seismic assessment of barrel vaults can be performed by means of analytical models typically used on the arch elements. The chapter discusses the main aspects related to the analysis of slender masonry vaults and without any backfill. The proposed method represents a useful simplified modelling tool in order to design dynamic tests on masonry barrel vaults or to assess their vulnerability.
