Equilibrium analysis of a sail vault in livorno’s fortezza vecchia through a modern re-edition of the stability area method

Abstract

The present paper aims at performing a preliminary study of the mechanical response of a sail vault covering a trapezoidal room located in the Cavaniglia bastion of Fortezza Vecchia in Livorno. In particular, admissible stress fields within the vault have been determined by considering the weight of the vault itself and that of the overlying soil layers. The analysis has been conducted by means of a re-visitation of the stability area method, an interesting historical method proposed by Durand-Claye. The method is suitably extended in order to assess the stability of an entire dome under the assumption of nil tensile hoop forces.