Geometric issues and ultimate load capacity of masonry arch bridges from the Northwest Iberian Peninsula

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Daniel V.
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Lourenço, Paulo B., Lemos, Claudia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/17616
• topic: Masonry arch bridges; Ultimate load; Limit analysis; Collapse mechanism; Empirical rules; Science & Technology

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.