Out-of-plane buckling of arches with rectangular cross-sections and curved webs

Contemporary arch bridges are mostly designed as slender structures. Due to the presence of mainly compressive forces in the arches, the bridge may become prone to out-of-plane buckling. The main purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the geometric properties of a cross-section of the arch on this behaviour. To this end, a detailed FEM model of an arch bridge is built and validated by the results of a measurement programme. Thereafter, the critical buckling load is examined by numerical and analytical analyses. Furthermore, the influence of the plate thickness and the introduction of a cross-sectional curvature in the web on the buckling behaviour is evaluated. From that, it can be concluded that the relationship between the critical load and moment of inertia around the weak axis of the arch is linear, and in addition independent of the shape of the cross-section. Nevertheless, a cross-sectional curvature in the web shows the most potential in terms of structural efficiency.

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