University of Southampton OCS (beta), CAA 2012

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Reconstruction of Ruined Archaeological Structures Using Structural Analysis Methods
James Miles, Aykut Erkal

Last modified: 2011-12-17

Abstract


Examination of material remains of previous human societies help to study past human behaviour in archaeology. One of the most important remains includes the ruins of historic buildings. The use of computerized recording equipment and three-dimensional plotting are essential tools for researchers to recreate a ruined structure for reconstruction and further analysis. However, the reliability of the precision of the reconstructed model can be very controversial due to the absence of historical information and fabric loss. Structural analysis can be an effective or alternative tool for reconstruction. On the basis of failure mechanism of the ruined structure, possible hypothetical forms can structurally be analysed under the associated loads and the resulting behaviour can be assessed to determine its actual form. Therefore, based on a multidisciplinary approach, a novel methodology to reconstruct a historic structure will be presented in this paper. Following laser scanning to produce the complex geometry of a structure and ground penetration radar techniques to estimate the material properties of inaccessible parts, finite element model will be generated and plausible original forms of the construction will be evaluated based on the static and modal analysis results.

Keywords


Structural Analysis; Laser Scanning; GPR;