Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 5(5), pp. 180 - 184
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050503
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The Structural Analysis of King Parakramabahu's Palace

K.K. Prabhani Auchithya Ranaweera ^1,*, W.K. Randesh Lilushan ¹, D.M. Waruni Lakma Randenigama ¹, Kushan Kalmith Wijesundara ^2
1 Department of Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), Sri Lanka
² Department of Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

King Parakramabahu, (1153-1186) in Polonnaruwa monarch who built the 'Parakrama Samudra' had a magnificent seven storied palace called 'Vijayanta Prasada' or 'Vijayothpaya', the palace of God Sakra. This study has investigated the structural configuration of the palace through historical data and observation of existing part of the palace. The chronicles Chulawansa and Mahawansa has described the palace as seven storied building with thousand chambers. Though the main building possibly cannot hold such a number of chambers, considering the whole palace complex this number seems a possible. The research was being conducted using the existing brick wall and was used to identify the column beam configuration and how the load path was distributed. During the research the load path from the upper floors to the ground was also investigated. The dimensions of all the existing structural components were taken into consideration. The results revealed that the upper floors could have been made out of timber such as Weera and Palu and the existing wall must have held the massive wooden structure that form the floor of the upper level. The study was conducted in order to prove that the ancestors who lived 1000 years ago also used a method similar to Euler - Bernouli beam theorem for constructions.

KEYWORDS
Euler - Bernouli Beam Theorem, Structural Configuration, Load Path

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] K.K. Prabhani Auchithya Ranaweera , W.K. Randesh Lilushan , D.M. Waruni Lakma Randenigama , Kushan Kalmith Wijesundara , "The Structural Analysis of King Parakramabahu's Palace," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 180 - 184, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050503.

(b). APA Format:
K.K. Prabhani Auchithya Ranaweera , W.K. Randesh Lilushan , D.M. Waruni Lakma Randenigama , Kushan Kalmith Wijesundara (2017). The Structural Analysis of King Parakramabahu's Palace. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 5(5), 180 - 184. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050503.