Advances in structural mechanics of Chinese ancient architectures

Abstract

Chinese ancient architectures are valuable heritage of ancient culture of China. Many historical building have been preserved up to now. The researches on the structural mechanics of ancient architectures show the different aspects of structure and mechanics. Systematical studies on the structural mechanics of ancient architectures have been carried out at Xi’an Jiaotong University since 1982. It is related with the need of repair of some national preservation relics in Xi’an. These studies include: 1) Ancient wooden structures including three national preservation relics Arrow Tower at North City Gate, City Tower at East City Gate, and Baogao Temple in Ningbao, Zhejiang province. 2) Ancient tall masonry building, the Big Goose Pagoda and Small Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. 3) Mechanical characteristics of ancient soil under foundation and city wall; the influence of caves in and under the ancient City Wall on the stability of the wall. 4) The typical Chinese ancient building at the center of city: the Bell Tower and Drum tower. 5) The behavior of Dou-Gong and Joggle joint of Chinese ancient wooden structure. 6) The mechanical behavior of ancient soils under complex stress state. A new systematical strength theory, the unified strength theory, is used to analyze the stability of ancient city wall in Xi’an and foundation of tall pagoda built in Tang dynasty. These researches also concern differential settlements of Arrow Tower and resistance to earthquake of these historical architecture heritages. Some other studies are also introduced. This paper gives a summary of these researches. Preservation and research are nowadays an essential requirement for the famous monuments, buildings, towers and others. Our society is more and more conscious of this necessity, which involves increasing activities of restoration, and then sometimes also of repair, mechanical strengthening and seismic retrofitting. Many historical buildings have in fact problems of structural strength and stability; the need for further studies on structural mechanics and materials is definitely growing.

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