Abstract
The presence of soil backfill has been shown to have a significant influence on the load-carrying capacity of masonry arch bridges, with the soil fill providing a number of important functions, including inter alia, the distribution of surface loads and passive resistance to arch deformation during loading. Large-scale physical modelling allows high-quality data to be collected under controlled conditions, while enabling essential aspects of the interaction between the soil fill, the masonry arch and the abutments to be observed. This paper considers the design and construction of a unique test facility that allows large-scale soil-filled masonry arch structures to be studied under both quasi-static and cycling loading regimes. The key challenges that were needed to be overcome to develop this facility are presented and discussed.
Highlights
The masonry arch bridge can be considered as a highly effective soil-masonry composite form, the behaviour of which has in the last 25 years become the subject of in-depth research
In the laboratory the bridge system can be reduced from a three-dimensional system to a twodimensional system, with a central portion of the bridge modelled under essentially plane strain conditions. This allows the composite behaviour of the masonry arch barrel and the surrounding soil fill to be modelled in the longitudinal plane
Displacement transducers, pressure cells (PCs), electronic resistance strain gauges (ERSG) and acoustic sensors can be placed in various positions in order to measure the deformation of the arch barrel and of the test chamber, the soil pressure on the extrados of the arch, strain across mortar joints and change in stiffness due to crack formation
Summary
The masonry arch bridge can be considered as a highly effective soil-masonry composite form, the behaviour of which has in the last 25 years become the subject of in-depth research. As an integral part of this continuing programme of research, a major experimental facility has been developed to allow the construction and testing to failure of full-scale, soil-filled, masonry arch bridges. Full-scale physical modelling in the laboratory offers a compromise in that the model test arrangement can be designed to ensure essential aspects of the interaction between the soil fill, the masonry arch barrel and the abutments are properly modelled, and that high-quality data are captured. There has been limited work on investigating the influence of the dynamic effects of working loads on the response of the masonry arch bridge system, and the relationship between loading history and bridge capacity has been little studied in the literature, except in the case of bare arch barrels. A key required feature of this facility is to enable researchers to investigate the permissible limit state, the state beyond which incremental damage occurs, and its relationship with the ultimate limit state (ULS)
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