NURBS-Based Limit Analysis of Masonry Vaults

Limit analysis is currently one of the most used approaches for the stability assessment of masonry arches and vaults. The lower and upper bound theorems allow easy and practical identification of the load-bearing capacity, the stress pattern, and the mechanism at the collapse. Novel lower and upper bound numerical approaches based on an exact representation of curved geometries via NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) are here described. The presentation is enriched with some numerical examples concerning masonry arches and historical vaults.