Failure process of the Central Tower,Bayon,Angkor Thom,Cambodia

摘要

This paper presents a special mechanism of the failure process of the central Tower of Bayon temple at Angkor Thom,Angkor,Cambodia.The tower stands as the symbol of the Bayon with diameter of about 22m at the foundation and a height of about 42m from the ground.The tower is founded upon the densely compacted sand mound with a height of about 12m from the ground surface.It is not likely that the tower fails due to overturn like the Pisa tower.This is because rather wide base compared to its height.The problem of the Bayon Tower is the fall off of stones from the Tower,which has resulted in non-symmetry with irregular shape of the top part of the Tower.Based upon the measurements of the gap movements and meteorological data,he found the gaps open and close according to strong wind and further confirmed the existence of a threshold level of the wind velocity that may trigger some permanent displacement.The failure process of the central tower at Bayon temple is considered as has been caused by progressive fall out of stone elements from columns.The masonry structure as put them together always tends rather to spread out than to get closer together.The failure process of the central tower at Bayon is Domino process leading to failure caused by very strong winds.