Structural analysis of earth construction’s vaults: Case of underground tombs of Chogha Zanbil

Abstract The 3300-year-old Chogha Zanbil is the largest and best-preserved five levelled pyramidal earth ziggurat outside Mesopotamia, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Underground tombs of Chogha Zanbil are accepted as outstanding instances in Iran and consist of vaults...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hosseini,Sara, Niroumand,Hamed, Burcu Gültekin,Arzuhan, Barceló,Juan Antonio, Osmadi,Atasya, Mahdavi,Fatemeh
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Escuela de Construcción Civil, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-915X2020000300366
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract The 3300-year-old Chogha Zanbil is the largest and best-preserved five levelled pyramidal earth ziggurat outside Mesopotamia, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Underground tombs of Chogha Zanbil are accepted as outstanding instances in Iran and consist of vaults, which are built with special methods by Elamite architects. In this context, the main purpose of this paper is to contribute to sustain the outstanding universal value of the Chogha Zanbil. For that purpose, this paper puts forward a structural analyse of the vaults of five Chogha Zanbil underground tombs, which were built inside the ground by brick, lime mortar, plaster and bitumen materials. Data for underground tombs and vaults were collected upon field observations and literature study. Finite-element methodology was used for structural analysis and SAP software was utilized to determine the way the forces are transmitted through the vaults, the conditions of bending moments, the shear forces. As a result, it has been observed that the bending in the vaults turns into pressure force that is perfectly resisted by bricks. In conclusion, it was ascertained that the vaults of the Chogha Zanbil underground tombs were built with the right techniques at that time, so that the vaults still have solid behaviour after thousands of years and remained completely healthy to this day.