On the Stability Analysis of a Geometrically Complex Leaning Historic Structure

In this paper, a simple approach for the stability analysis of the southwest leaning ruined tower of the Caerphilly castle (Wales, UK) is discussed. To account for the actual complex geometry of the tower, a mesh generation procedure recently proposed by the authors is used to automatically transform the 3D point cloud surveyed from the tower into a 3D solid finite element model. A simple approach based on nonlinear static analyses is pursued to evaluate the stability condition of the tower. Geometric nonlinearity and nonlinear plastic-damaging behavior of masonry are supposed. Results show that the proposed approach could serve as a simplified method to evaluate the stability of leaning historic structures considering their actual geometry.