The influence of laying patterns on the behaviour of historic stone pavements subjected to horizontal loads

Abstract Stone pavements are of great importance both for their historical and cultural value and for the most modern ecological and aesthetic requirements appreciated thanks to the use of natural materials of different colours, shapes and sizes which are laid in different patterns. Since stone block pavements are made up of individual elements with irregular side surfaces that interact with each other, an important parameter that must be considered in the design is their structural strength to horizontal stresses mainly due to braking, turning and accelerating vehicles. In this study horizontal load tests were performed on stone pavements built in a wide laboratory test chamber to analyse the load-shifting behaviour for different geometric arrangements. The displacements distribution of the elements was determined by a photogrammetric analysis. The tests have shown that the behaviour of the stone pavements in the horizontal plane is significantly influenced by the laying pattern, both in terms of translations and interaction between the elements.