Reinforcing stone roofing slabs

Abstract

In Malta, the use of stone slabs (xorok) as a roofing system was probably introduced to these islands during the Byzantine and Arab period. The stone slab roofing system was adapted to a number of variants but maintained its original structural concept. In the last few decades the building load requirements have increased to an extent that often lead to in the replacement of the stone slab roof in old buildings. The aim is to investigate methods of reinforcing the stone slabs in roof construction to increase their load carrying capacity while being as discreet as possible. The objectives are: to examine different stone slabs roof construction in Malta; to determine the flexural and shear capacity of stone slabs; to determine possible/viable reinforcing methods for stone slabs individually or in groups; and to test the reinforcing methods chosen for stone slabs. A number of experiments will be conducted to determine the increase of shear and flexural strength of different reinforced stone slabs, depending on the type of reinforcement adopted.