Simple construction overview about the mosque of the dome of the rock , structural system and load transfer

1. 2018
Faculty of Engineering
Suez Canal University
Department of Construction engineering

2. Dome of the Rock (Qubbat Al-Sakhra)
Jerusalem – Palestine
1. DIMENSIONS OF THE STRUCTURE AND STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
The Structure of the mosque is composed of two
main parts :
1- Interior cylindrical structure with a dome.
2- Exterior octagonal structure
3- Between the two parts is a surface of
revolution of a rotated inclined line or
part of a cone
4- The surface of revolution is supported by
3 systems (interior – intermediate –
exterior)
Interior System
- The diameter of the dome of the
shrine is 20.20 m (66.3 ft) and its
height 20.48 m (67.2 ft)
- The dome is supported on upper horizontal beam.
- Brick walls are in between the upper ring beam and the lower ring beams.
- The ring beams is supported on interior 12 columns arranged as octagon and
extruded to the ground footing.
Exterior System
- Beams supported on 12 columns arranged
as octagon with a diameter of 12.5 meter
and height of 12 meters
- The building is from natural stone.
Intermediate system
- similar to the exterior with a smaller
diameter

3. 2. LOAD TRANSFER
For the dome
- The load moves from the dome to the
upper ring beams with the shell
membrane theory of axial loads T1 &
T2.
For the horizontal ring Beams
- The load transfer from the beam
to the interior columns to the
foundations
For the inclined surface
- The surface is supported on the
3 beams of the three systems
For the Exterior system
- Load is transferred from beams to columns then to the foundations