Nonlinear Behavior of Masonry Arch Bridge Under Ground Deformation

This paper discusses simple modeling and examples of masonry arch bridge analysis considering ground deformation. Preserving historicalmasonry arch bridges is important to continuing our industrial heritage for the next generations. A single-span masonry arch bridge was analyzed using the finite element method with two meshing schemes considering material nonlinearity to define reasonable modeling for such arch bridges. Results show that analytical model meshed automatically with a commercial FEM program preprocessor considering material plasticity reasonably simulates the behavior of the detailed masonry model. The effects of deformation on bridge behavior and stress distribution in arch bridges are also discussed.