Stone arch FEM

[freman]

Hi,

has anyone tried modelling a stone arch in FEM?

My particular interest is working out how wide a supporting stone pillars would need to be to support and arch. Or how much surrounding masonry would need to be added. I have not found any quantitative information on this so thought it may be an interesting exercise to do with FreeCAD FEM.

I'm thinking of tidy cut stone blocks.

[openBrain]

By some similarities it make me think to the carport tutorial.

HTH

[papyblaise]

Hello
you type all informations on the different lignes , that all
Good luck

[freman]

By some similarities it make me think to the carport tutorial.

HTH

Thanks, that looks like it may be a useful starting point. I was hoping someone may have already done some work on an arch structure. I need to work out lateral forces needed to support the arch from collapsing in on itself. Modelling unstructured stone and mortar masonry will be difficult but the first question is using a solid stone support pillar: how wide does the base area need to be to prevent it tipping over due lateral forces of the arch.

[Kunda1]

FYI, if you have FEM related issue better to either post it in the FEM subforum or x-post to this thread https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 25#p332725 so @bernd and other Knights of FEM will see it

Edit: On 2nd thought, this is totally a FEM issue. Moved to FEM subforum

[freman]

Thanks for the tip and the move, I'll bear that in mind.

[thschrader]

Hi,
has anyone tried modelling a stone arch in FEM?

This is hard stuff with FEM alone. I think you need graphic statics too.
Some inspiration:
https://www.block.arch.ethz.ch/brg/
http://spaetgotische-gewoelbe.eu/entwur ... -gewoelbe/
http://block.arch.ethz.ch/eq/files/SD_V ... 887127.pdf
http://oa.upm.es/703/1/Huerta_Art_002.pdf

[freman]

thanks for the links, though most is far more complex that what I'm after. The Hooke's catenary analogy in the last link is interesting.

I want a simple, single radius arch, not cathedral ceiling

I don't see why this simple 2D problem should not be susceptible to modelling in FEM, I've see far more complex things done.

[-alex-]

I want a simple, single radius arch, not cathedral ceiling

Hi Freman, do you mean something like that? :

[freman]

yes, that's certainly along the right lines.

I do not want 180 of arch , more like 90 or so, sitting on a vertical pillar at each end. The real-world problem is calculating lateral forces on the supporting pillars. do you have a FCStd for that model?