AN EXPLORATION OF ARCHED

BRIDGES DESIGN AND

ANALYSIS THROUGH HISTORY

BY: Hemam
Prasanta Singh
 INTRODUCTION
Since the around the 6th century BC (Boyd,
1978 ) arched bridges came to exist.
v In western civilisation and Roman empire
around 4th century B.C
v Material of construction changes from
wood to stone then to modern rcc and
steel.
Understanding how the bridge will behave
under load is important .
Mathematical approaches were being
carried out by various scientists.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 HISTORY OF ARCHED BRIDGES
What is an Arch?
Sustained by supports capable of
developing lateral as well as normal
reaction components.
Must be of such shape that these
lateral reaction components are
developed under load thus constitute
thrust rather than pulls.

Arch forms

Barrel arched. Deck arched

.


Typical tied arch Sydney

Harbour Bridge

Roman and Medieval arches

In Roman Empire , Roman road system
tied the empire together, and those
roads required many bridges .
They were the first to adopt the arch
form for widespread construction .
the primary building material for
arched bridges was stone masonry .
The Romans, made great use of the
arch in bridge construction, and in the
aqueducts.


Pont du Gard Aqueduct Gothic

Cathedral
The primary contribution of medieval

masons was not to the art of bridges

their greatest achievements were in
building the great Gothic cathedrals .
 Great technological innovations such as
flying buttresses were developed.
v The thrust of the arched vault was
carried by flying buttresses away from
the walls.
Thinner interior supports that carried
only the vertical loads.
they made a great an impression on
bridges as they had on buildings.
steel and reinforced concrete arches

v The industrial revolution brought iron,

and later steel and the building
materials began to change .
v The new material allowed a greater
lightness than the massive character
of masonry.
The Garabit Viaduct, built by Gustave
Eiffel , is one of the most
representative of early iron
construction.
 Soon after metal was developed as a viable
bridge building material concrete
reinforced with iron, and later steel, also
became popular.
Iron, steel and reinforced concrete opened
up the world of arched bridges to new
variations on the form.

steel arch bridge reinforced arch

bridge
LITERATURE REVIEW
Robert Hooke was the first to carry out
scientific research on arches .
His main finding was about the shape of
an arch which could stand on its own .
As hangs the flexible line, so but
inverted will stand the rigid arch.
About two decades later, GREGORY(1697)
suggested the theoretical correct shape
for an arch centreline where the arch
took the form of Hooke's catenary .
 He concluded that an arch will stand only
if a catenary can be wholly contained
within the thickness of the arch ring .
COUPLET (1729) produced a `Memoire'
which demonstrated the idea of
thrustline and the mechanism of failure
of a voussoir arch .
Couplet makes in effect three key
postulates about the behaviour of
masonry - it has no tensile strength,
infinite compressive strength
and sliding failure cannot occur.
 Pippard worked in conjunction with
Baker, Chitty, Ashby and Tranter on
arch bridge problems from 1936 to
1968 .
He conducted a series of experiments
on model arches and concluded that
the voussoir arch behaved elastically
within certain limiting loads .
He also demonstrated that the collapse
of arch bridges was due to formation
of hinges as the result of cracking .
 Heyman's work was mainly based on the
concept of mechanism failure with the
incorporation of plastic theorems .
He developed a simplified approach based on
the plastic theorem for the collapse of an
arch rib.
Heyman made a strong statement about the
stability of voussoir arches .
If a thrustline can be found, for the complete
arch, which is in equilibrium with the
external loading including self-weight, and
which lies everywhere within the masonry
of the arch ring, then the arch is safe.
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF ARCHES:
v From the end of the seventeenth century a
"scientific" theory of vaulted masonry
structures has been developed.
v Professor Heyman has incorporated this
"old" theory of masonry structures within
the broader frame of modern Limit
Analysis .
v This scientific theory was preceded by
another: the traditional "geometrical"
theory of the old master builders .
 Both theories tried to solve the
fundamental problem of structural
design: to design safe structures .
Both theories arrive to same
conclusion: the safety of a masonry
structure is a matter of geometry.
Both historically and theoretically the
"equilibrium approach" is the best
approach to the analysis and design
of masonry structures.