TY - JOUR 
A1 - Redondo Martínez, Esther
T1 - Testing of Tile Vaults. The need to validate the system
Y1 - 2021
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11268/10493
AB - The first documented tests of tile vaults date from the end of the 18th century, and testing vaults became more and more frequent throughout the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The beginning of testing coincided with the Enlightenment, a time when architects began to take a scientific approach to construction, which would lead to modern structural theory. For this reason, the first tests were also carried out in countries where Enlightenment thought began earlier, such as France and England.
With regard to tile vaults, a few more observations can be added:
-In the last years of the 18th century and during the 19th century, they experience an important development linked to the appearance of new types of buildings, especially factories for the new industries. Factory buildings had rigid requirements for size and shape, as well as serious fire problems due to the combustibility of machines and stored materials.
-During the 19th century, the use of cement as a binding material became widespread. The appearance of this new material was decisive in the development of tile vaults: compared to the plaster used up to that time, cement sets in a shorter time, and is not altered by humidity and does not increase in volume when it sets. Moreover, in tests, cement showed a certain tensile strength, and this revived a latent debate, which began in the mid-18th century, about the "monolithic" behaviour of these vaults and the idea that because of this monolithic behaviour, the vaults did not transmit pressure to the supports. This is the historical context in which the tests studied here were carried out: seeking, on the one hand, a theory to support the practices that had been used for centuries to construct them, and on the other hand, the validity of the monolithic model mentioned above. In the first tests, carried out when plaster was a binder, monolithic behaviour was attributed to a perfect union between tiles and plaster, and that if the vaults pushed the walls, it was because the plaster expanded as it set and moved the supports. If precautions were taken to avoid this, the vaults would not push at all.  Later, cement (Roman or Portland type), was used as a binder. Monolithic behaviour was then attributed to the tensile strength of this new material.
KW - Ingeniería de la construcción
KW - Historia
KW - Arquitectura
LA - eng
PB - Instituto Juan de Herrera
ER -