Enrico Tubaldi 1,2, Eleni Minga1, Lorenzo Macorini1, and Bassan A. Izzuddin1
1) Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London
London
e-mail:{e.tubaldi,l.macorini,b.izzuddin,e.minga13}@imperial.ac.uk
2) Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Strathclyde University
Glasgow
enrico.tubaldi@strath.ac.uk
Keywords: Masonry arch bridges, Multiple spans, Mesoscale model, Backfill, Load capacity.
Abstract. In this paper, a numerical study is performed to investigate the behaviour of multispan masonry arch bridges under vertical loads. An advanced masonry mesoscale finite element modelling approach is employed for the accurate response prediction up to collapse, where due account is taken of both material and geometric nonlinearities adopting separate descriptions for masonry units and mortar joints. The adopted modelling strategy, validated against experimental results, is used to conduct a parametric investigation to evaluate the most important geometrical parameters that affect the bridge response. Comparisons are also made with the response of single-span bridges to shed some light on the effects due to the interaction between adjacent spans.