Abstract
It is almost impossible to produce a barrel vault assembly with complete precision. With the hundreds of members and joints these structures typically contain, assuming precise manufacturing throughout is unrealistic. It is, therefore, inevitable that some of these components will have some geometric imperfections, primarily in the form of member lack of fit and joint misplacement. This paper presents a study on the effects of geometric imperfections on single-layer barrel vaults. Imperfections are considered in different vault zones in order to identify the critical areas in which imperfection is most damaging. The conclusions of this study could be beneficial to barrel vault design and construction.
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