A Castle in the Air? The Building,Arms, Action and Incident on the Eleventh-Century ‘Castle’ Capital from Westminster Hall

The restoration of Westminster Hall in the 1830s revealed a number of eleventh-century carved capitals, one depicting, as then described, ‘an armed man assailing a castle’. Aided by archaeological evidence from Abinger (Surrey), the ‘castle’ can be convincingly interpreted as a motte-top tower, carried by earth-fast posts, open-sided below and faced above with boards painted to resemble masonry. It is the only known depiction in elevation of a type of tower that is likely, given its simplicity, to have been widely used in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The assailant, armed with an axe, carrying a round shield and wearing a helmet with nasal, is shown climbing the tower’s external stair at the moment of being despatched or wounded by the defender’s spear. The incident, an individual action rather than a ‘siege’ as such, has many oddities, and may represent a topical event or scene from history or mythology. The story of the Trojan War is suggested as a possible source.     

剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固砌体墙体拟静力试验

主拉应力破坏是砌体结构在地震荷载作用下最常见的一种破坏形式,剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固法就是针对砌体结构抵抗主拉应力不足的一种加固方法。为了考察该方法加固砌体墙体的受力性能及加固效果,对6片砂浆强度不同、加固方法不同的墙体试件进行了拟静力试验。试验结果表明：剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固法能够明显提高砌体墙体的抗剪承载力;该方法更适合于加固砂浆强度较低的砌体墙体;采用该方法加固后的砌体墙体破坏形式以剪切滑移破坏为主;加固面层能够与原有墙体较好地共同工作。目前剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固法是一个崭新的课题,该拟静力试验给出的试验分析结果和建议可供相关研究和加固工程设计参考。     

剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固低强度砂浆砖砌体拟静力试验

对低强度砂浆砖砌体墙片经过剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固后,与未加固砌体墙片在相同竖向压应力下进行拟静力对比试验。试验结果表明,对于砂浆强度很低的砌体,剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固能有效增强砌体的抗震性能,其极限荷载、极限位移、抗侧刚度均比未加固墙体有明显提高,延性比有所降低。在此基础上讨论了剪刀撑水泥砂浆网薄层加固砌体结构墙体的抗剪承载力计算模型,并提出了抗剪承载力建议公式,公式值与试验值符合较好。结论可为公程设计人员提供参考依据。