1 Institute of Structural Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, alexander.krawtschuk@boku.ac.at
ABSTRACT
Arch bridges made from nature stone or masonry are the oldest structures which are still in use on lots of road and railway lines nowadays. With an average age of more than hundred years, these structures often are seen as historical important buildings. Most of them had been constructed during the great building period of roads and railways from the 1840ies to 1900. Lots of the considered nature stone bridges are constructed as circle or three centre curve, some of them also in a parabolic form or catenaries or cycloid. The height of the apex cover varies in a wide range. If masonry was appropriated, usually sand, chalkstone or clay bricks were used. For most bridges no observations of the material parameters are available, as a result the stone and the mortar strength are unknown. In order to determine useable material parameters for the recalculation of these arch bridges, usually material tests have to be performed. From the geology, it is known that the compressive strength of e.g. shale stone depends on the direction of the applied load. For masonry made out of bricks hardly any relationship of the loading direction can be found in the literature. In this article experimental test results of a series of tests concerning the determination of the uniaxial compressive strength under various loading directions are presented. The various load bearing behaviour depends on the manufacturing process which is also discussed in this article. Furthermore, the potential applications for evaluating the structural performance of existing arch bridges regarding the material parameters are estimated.
KEYWORDS: arch bridge, monitoring concepts, material testing, model update, life time assessment
205.pdf
