Structural Analysis And Remaining Useful Life Prediction On The Ancient Landscape Architecture Of The Qing Dynasty In Lingnan Area

As one of the great treasures in Chinese architectural culture, the ancient landscape architecture of the Qing Dynasty in Lingnan area represents the characteristics of Chinese classical architectural art. Hence, it is of great significance to preserve these ancient buildings. They share the same cultural inheritance with civilian residential buildings, thus resulting in their resemblance in architectural styles. Therefore, the research results of ancient landscape architecture can be generalized to the repairing and reinforcement of other ancient old buildings. Selecting Lvqi Lou in Dongguan Ke Yuan as the research case, the present research makes a series of investigations and assessments on the ancient landscape buildings in Lingnan area, thus providing reliable case study and analysis for the preservation of the ancient landscape architecture of the Qing Dynasty in Lingnan area.On-site investigation and mapping is carried out to learn about the current condition of the structure, including recording the geometry, material type, damage and environmental variations of the structure. Based on the results of on-site investigation and mapping, a finite element model is set up to make numerical analysis on the structure, assess the current bearing capacity, find out the inappropriate positions caused by the structural design or change, locate the dangerous elements and pertinently calculate the loading effects on the dangerous elements brought by the change of crowd live load.The present study focuses on analyzing the crowd load effect of museums transformed from landscape buildings and assessing the effect of the usage change and increased live load on the buildings. The static effect of crowd load is the main factor influencing the structure. Moreover, the structural vibrations caused by the large quantities of people in Lvqi Lou should also receive due attention. Therefore, the present study also makes an analysis on the effect of crowd load on structural dynamics. Field measurement concerning the dynamic effect of the crowd on the structure is carried out on opening days to assess the degree of safety and comfort. As experiments of crowd activities which involve relatively great potential danger can not be performed on the spot, the structural response under such circumstances is carried out via numerical simulation.Owing to its long-standing history, the structure has accumulated various degrees of damage along with the historical and environmental changes. It is necessary to make seismic analysis on the structures to ensure that the ancient landscape buildings can survive future latent disasters, which also serves as a crucial way to locate structural defects.In order to preserve, repair and reinforce the ancient landscape architecture more effectively and appropriately, the present study also carries out remaining useful life prediction on the ancient buildings in Lingnan area based on the environment and their stress states. The study sets up a time-varying model of cumulative damage corresponding to the geographical environment and sets random variables to calculate their remaining life span via Monte Carlo algorithm. By conducting the remaining useful life prediction on Lvqi Lou via the time-varying model, the present study provides case analysis for the assessment of the ancient landscape architecture of the Qing Dynasty in Lingnan area.