notre dame de haut architectural diagrams

That’s quite exceptional,” Bernard Thibaut points out. “This roof structure held up for eight hundred years, whereas no one would guarantee a lifespan of more than a century or two for a modern one. Frédéric Épaud, a researcher at the CITERES laboratory 2 in Tours (central western France), examined it after the fire and compiled a number of studies that debunk some popular misconceptions. The characteristics of the framing are not totally unknown though. analysis of the tree rings should also tell us when the trees were felled,” he adds. “ Dendrochronological FermerDendrochronology is a method of dating wood using tree rings. Analysing the beams of Notre-Dame will help the researchers to further their knowledge of the roof structure, such as the origin of the oaks, their age, how they were grown, and so on. “Wood always provides us with invaluable records,” the scientist explains. 1 For the moment, very few people have access to the debris in the cathedral, since it is too unsafe. “There are probably around 2,000 pieces of timber to be studied, some of which are intact or only partially charred,” explains Bernard Thibaut, CNRS senior researcher emeritus at the Mechanics and Civil Engineering Laboratory (LMGC) in Montpellier (southern France).

A post-mortem analysis of the roof structure Some of them have never been analysed, starting with the wooden roof structure known as the “forest”, made up of thousands of oak beams assembled eight hundred years ago.

Despite the tragedy, the fire has opened up an exceptional opportunity to access these materials, which were often located in the highest parts of the monument. This huge mass of timber, iron and stone materials records the history of the cathedral, and is now undergoing expert assessment by French scientists. Stone by stone, beam after beam, the removal of the first pieces of debris from Notre-Dame de Paris began shortly after the blaze that devastated the edifice on 15 April this year.

Notre dame de haut architectural diagrams