Structural assessments of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Alessandri, Claudio; Mallardo, Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2012.10.010

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In fact, the crack pattern surveyed before starting the restoration works and visible through the XIX century plaster [6] shows some vertical cracks at the intersection of the orthogonal walls, especially those of the nave and the transept, Fig. 14.…”

Section: Non-linear Dynamic Analyses Of the Churchmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The fact that they have not re-opened ever since shows that the damage evolution is now over and that it was probably over even when the external buttress, now still perfectly vertical, was added. The façade of the Church, opposite to the one of the narthex, exhibits a slight out-of-plane deformation, which starts from the roof of the narthex and achieves 10 cm at the top of the tympanum [6]. As a consequence of the rotation of the narthex façade, the three central vaults, and in particular the one in the middle, underwent vertical displacements downwards in the central zones, detachments from the façade walls and both extrados and intrados cracks.…”

Section: State Of the Structural Damage And Possible Causesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nowadays the structure of the narthex is strongly deformed [6]. The façade wall exhibits a rotation towards the square more pronounced in the middle of its length and starting approximately from the architrave of the Humility door, about one meter above the ground.…”

Section: State Of the Structural Damage And Possible Causesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The narthex of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: A non-linear finite element approach to predict the structural damage

Milani

Valente

Alessandri

2018

Computers & Structures

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Keywords:Masonry Church of the Nativity Narthex FE model Non-linear dynamic analysis Vault a b s t r a c tThe Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has a narthex in the front that is as long as the façade of the Church and about six meters wide. Currently, the narthex is covered by five cross vaults, three of which in a dangerous state of decay, and it is internally divided by three walls perpendicular to the façade, which appears to be strongly rotated outwards with a maximum horizontal top displacement of about 40 cm. Inside the central cross vault, the narthex has been heavily damaged and propped since the thirties of the last century. Numerous attempts have been made over the time to identify the causes of such damage. Some archival researches, in-situ inspections of the subsoil and detailed laser scanner surveys, which were carried out during the recent restoration works in the Church and in the narthex, allowed for gaining a deeper insight into the construction features of the cross vaults and for putting forward some hypotheses about the possible causes of damage. This paper provides a scientific validation of these hypotheses by means of finite element numerical simulations, which try to reproduce the seismic response of the Church and the deformation process of a three-dimensional simplified model of the narthex from an assumed initial configuration up to an ultimate state of damage, comparable with the current one. Such models are discretized by means of tetrahedron elements obeying a damage plasticity law that exhibits a softening behavior in both tension and compression. The numerical simulations carried out provide some results that fit reasonably with the actual deformed configuration of the narthex and can be considered as a useful tool for further insights.

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Section: Non-linear Dynamic Analyses Of the Churchmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: State Of the Structural Damage And Possible Causesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The narthex of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: A non-linear finite element approach to predict the structural damage

Milani

Valente

Alessandri

2018

Computers & Structures

Self Cite

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“…In the field of timber structures, laser scanning has been successfully used for 3D modeling of historic structures. Alessandri and Mallardo [20] deals with some preliminary structural analysis of the wooden roof construction of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; Balletti et al [21] study the wooden roof structure of the dome of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice; Oreni et al [22] illustrates the switch from a 3D content model to a Historic Building Information Model (HBIM) in order to support conservation and management of built heritage.…”

Section: Methods and Techniques For Crack Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Algorithm for automatic detection and analysis of cracks in timber beams from LiDAR data

Cabaleiro

Lindenbergh

Gard

et al. 2017

Construction and Building Materials

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Cracks may indicate structural problems in constructions made of timber beams, but their identification in notably roof constructions is difficult. Therefore this paper presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of cracks in timber beams sampled by LiDAR data. This algorithm enables the identification, analysis and monitoring of cracks and their geometrical characteristics. The algorithm is validated by tests on laboratory specimens and on a timber roof structure. The results prove that the proposed algorithm is able to automatically identify and analyze cracks with a width of above 3 mm from point clouds with an average resolution below 1 mm.

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“…The project, awarded after an international tender, was aimed at the analysis of the historical and archeological aspects, at assessing the physical and structural decay of the Church in all its components (see [1] and [2]) and at the analyses of the mosaics [3].…”

Section: Research Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical and archaeological analysis of the Church of the Nativity

Bacci

Bianchi

Campana

et al. 2012

Journal of Cultural Heritage

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History of archaeological excavations Archaeological analysis of architecture History of architecture a b s t r a c tThe team has considered the special status of the Basilica of Bethlehem, which is not just a monument of outstanding historic and artistic importance, but also and fundamentally a holy place, that has long been and is still perceived as a memorial site, marking the place of Christ's birth and transcribing into a sacred topography the main events of the Gospel narratives. Because of such a peculiarity, the team considered that it was indispensable to analyze the Basilica of Bethlehem from different viewpoints, namely those of archaeological and historical research. The historical approach aims at understanding the centuries-old development of the holy site as a ritual space and the materialized expression of holiness, the ways in which it has been perceived and used, and the messages that it was meant to convey to its beholders. It combines the findings of previous archaeological research with the data provided by the analysis of written evidence, including old textual sources about the Basilica (especially chronicles and pilgrims'accounts). For the archaeological study of the Basilica of the Nativity, we used the methodology of its investigation of the Archeology of Architecture. Stratigraphical analysis was carried out in relation to various portions of the church walls, as well as in relation to the buildings that make up the whole complex, in order to understand the dynamics of major changes in the structure in its entirety. Direct analysis of evidence from the walls was supported by the reading of existing literature and historical maps with particular reference to the plans of the church.These tools of investigation have been applied to the analysis of the church in its entirety, including its underground cavities.

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Structural assessments of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

The narthex of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: A non-linear finite element approach to predict the structural damage

The narthex of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: A non-linear finite element approach to predict the structural damage

Algorithm for automatic detection and analysis of cracks in timber beams from LiDAR data

Historical and archaeological analysis of the Church of the Nativity

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