Author(s)

R.J. Mainstone

Abstract

The structural conservation of Hagia Sophia R.J. Mainstone , # Affxma, INTRODUCTION: THE STRUCTURAL CONSERVATION OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGS The conservation of a historical masonry building presents very different problems from the design of a typical new one. The historical building differs structurally in many ways from the buildings for which our present analytical tools were largely developed. It carries its loads largely by compression, the masonry usually being extensively cracked where primary tensions would otherwise arise or where high local primary compressions lead to high orthogonal tensions. It already has a particular form put together in a particular manner, often in several campaigns of construction and partial reconstruction. Yet we can rarely know all we should like to know about its structure and constituent materials. And although it has demonstrated its capacities and shortcomings over

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