Structural analysis of the Caserta Royal Palace timber roof connections

Preservation of historical structures often includes evaluation of timber roof trusses. According to recent research achievements and European building design codes, connections can play a role in the response of timber structures, but have paramount relevance for assessment of historical constructions under serviceability and ultimate loading conditions. Whenever semi-rigid behaviour of connections is concerned, investigation within rotational properties of connections through refined numerical modelling is required. The objective of the present paper is to study the response under service loads of typical connections of ancient timber structures, by using finite element-based modelling. The model is calibrated against experimental and numerical results found in relevant literature and sensitivity analyses are carried out. An application to different connections of the roof trusses of the Royal Palace in Caserta is presented. Finite Element analysis seems to be able to simulate semi-rigid behaviour of joints within the elastic range. Numerical moment-rotation diagrams are calculated for the different connections found on the reference roof structures as a basic step for the global structural assessment under serviceability loading conditions. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, London.