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A new masonry arch bridge assessment strategy (SMART)

Melbourne, Clive; Wang, Jinyan; Tomor, Adrienn

Authors

Clive Melbourne

Jinyan Wang

Adrienn Tomor



Abstract

About 40% of the European railway bridge stock comprises masonry arch bridges and over 60% of these are over 100 years old. All are ageing and most are carrying loads well in excess of those envisaged by their builders. The maintenance and assessment of these bridges is a constant concern for the bridge owners. Although current masonry arch bridge assessment methods are able to predict the ultimate carrying capacity of the bridge with some confidence, serious concerns have been identified with respect to predicting long-term behaviour and residual life. A new assessment procedure (sustainable masonry arch resistance technique (SMART)) is presented which differs philosophically from all the current techniques in as much as it takes a holistic approach in considering all possible modes of failure that the structure may experience under any given loading regime. Limit states are discussed and a new permissible limit state that is specific for masonry is proposed. The method advocates consideration of the permissible working loads, long-term behaviour and residual life of the bridge. This enables the assessing engineer to prioritise conflicting maintenance demands on limited budgets. The method is based upon recent research related to the long-term fatigue performance of masonry arch bridges subjected to cyclic loading.

Citation

Melbourne, C., Wang, J., & Tomor, A. (2007). A new masonry arch bridge assessment strategy (SMART). Proceedings of the ICE - Bridge Engineering, 160(2), 81-87. https://doi.org/10.1680/bren.2007.160.2.81

Journal Article Type Article
Conference Name Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Masonary Arch Bridges, ARCH''07, MAdeira, Sept 07
Publication Date Jan 1, 2007
Journal Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Bridge Engineering
Print ISSN 1478-4637
Electronic ISSN 1751-7664
Publisher Thomas Telford
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Volume 160
Issue 2
Pages 81-87
DOI https://doi.org/10.1680/bren.2007.160.2.81
Keywords masonry arch bridge, bridges; brickwork & masonry; fatigue
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1031104
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/bren.2007.160.2.81


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