Two-dimensional experimental and numerical modelling of a soil-filled masonry arch

Ahmad, S; Augusthus Nelson, L; Swift, GM

Abstract

The ultimate load carrying capactiy of soil-filled masonry arches is significantly higher than that of bare masonry arches. The soil fill has a stabalising effect on the masonry arch, distributing the live load and providing passive resistance to deformation of the arch. The masonry arch behaves in a discontinuous manner, governed by interaction between masonry units and soil-masonry interfaces, where forces and displacements are concentrated. In order to understand the behaviour of this soil-structure system, a full scale masonry arch was constructed under laboratory conditions within a stiff, very low-friction chamber to accomodate backfill and confine the system to planar deformation. The system was subjected to monotonic quasi-static loading to collapse. The experimentally observed behaviour is compared with that of a 2-dimensional numerical model of the system using commercial distinct element software.

Citation

Ahmad, S., Augusthus Nelson, L., & Swift, G. (2015). Two-dimensional experimental and numerical modelling of a soil-filled masonry arch. In Geotechnical Engineering for Infrastructure and Development: XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. ICE Publishing

• Start Date: Sep 13, 2015
• End Date: Sep 15, 2015
• Publication Date: Sep 11, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2016
• Book Title: Geotechnical Engineering for Infrastructure and Development: XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
• ISBN: 9780727760678
• Publisher URL: http://xvi-ecsmge-2015.org.uk/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference