Author
A BARATTA and O CORBI
Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Abstract
In this paper a basic approach for dealing with masonry vault analysis is outlined. In practice, the fundamental issue in treating such structural typology is first to make a suitable identification of the vault geometry (This is, as is well known, a rather complex feature of the problem from the point of view of the analytical description especially for vaults of general shape) and second to allow the selection of membrane stress surfaces able to equilibrate the applied load and to respect the admissibility conditions of the masonry material. The paper focuses on both these two features, outlining a general approach for handling the problem analytically.

Key words
Analysis of masonry constructions, Vaults, Shells