Geometric issues and ultimate load capacity of masonry arch bridges from the No...

• Author(s): Oliveira, Daniel V. ; Lourenço, Paulo B. ; Lemos, Claudia
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/17616
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Masonry arch bridges; Ultimate load; Limit analysis; Collapse mechanism; Empirical rules
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

This paper reports the results from a geometrical survey carried out on 59 segmental masonry arch bridges from Portugal and Spain, with a focus on the adjacent geographical areas of northern Portugal and north-western Spain. Historical empirical rules are briefly presented and further compared against the bridges’ geometrical data. Departing from a detailed discussion of the geometrical results, eight reference bridges were defined as representative of the sample. Subsequently, the paper deals with a parametric assessment of the load-carrying capacity of the reference bridges and a discussion of results. It was found that arch thickness and physical properties of the fill are of paramount importance in terms of ultimate load-carrying capacity. Furthermore, the results indicate that the bridges from the sample are structurally safe with respect to applicable legislation.