Rapid evaluation of in-plane seismic capacity of masonry arch bridges through limit analysis

Abstract

In this paper a limit analysis based procedure for the rapid evaluation of the in-plane seismic capacity of masonry arch bridges is carried out. Attention has been paid to the effect of the backfill on the collapse load. A parametric investigation has been performed by varying the rise/span ratio and the results have been compared with those obtained by finite element modelling. The comparison highlights the conservative feature of the proposed model in terms of ultimate loads and a good agreement in terms of collapse mechanisms.