LAS BÓVEDAS OVALADAS DE LA CAPILLA DE LA FORTALEZA DE SAN CARLOS DE PEROTE: UN EJEMPLO DE MECÁNICA MODERNA EN LA AMÉRICA ILUSTRADA

The chapel of the San Carlos de Perote Fortress is a significant example of introduction of modern mechanical principles illustrated in the Mexican-Latin American historical-constructive panorama. The military engineer Manuel de Santisteban, author of the defensive work, endowed the architectural complex with a chapel projecting a set of oval guide vaults for its covering. The vaults provide height and magnitude, but above all, for his approach to the catenary shape, they reduce the lateral pushes, verticalize the weights and optimize abutments without the need to incorporate external elements for their support. The use of graphical static and vector calculation to determine the state of equilibrium and its mechanical behavior, shows that the choice of its oval layout corresponds to the need to adapt to the minimum thicknesses of the walls. Military engineers were the first to introduce the structures of catenary arches in Spain in the 18th century, aware of their static benefits for the vaults. This universal Cartesian knowledge of mathematics as a method for the investigation of reality and the scientific calculation of masonry structures was also transmitted in Latin America through military engineering models.

• Autores: Mansergas Sellens, Oscar
• Fecha de publicación: 2021
• Institución: Universidad Santo Tomás
• Repositorio: Universidad Santo Tomás
• Idioma: spa
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.usta.edu.co:11634/37504
• Acceso en línea: http://revistas.ustabuca.edu.co/index.php/REVISTAM/article/view/2473
• License: Derechos de autor 2020 Revista M