• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2020

The main structural elements of historical masonry arch bridges are arches, spandrel walls, piers and foundations. The most vulnerable structural elements of masonry arch bridges under transverse seismic loads, particularly in the case of out-of-plane actions, are spandrel wall. The vulnerability of spandrel walls under transverse loads increases with the increasing of their length and height. This paper computationally investigates the out-of-plane nonlinear seismic response of spandrel walls of long-span and high masonry stone arch bridges. The Malabadi Bridge with a main arch span of 40.86m and rise of 23.45m built in 1147 in Diyarbakır, Turkey, is selected as an example. The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) material model adjusted to masonry structures, and cohesive interface interaction between the infill and the spandrel walls and the arch are considered in the 3D finite element model of the selected bridge. Firstly, mode shapes with and without cohesive interfaces are evaluated, and then out-of-plane seismic failure responses of the spandrel walls with and without the cohesive interfaces are determined and compared with respect to the displacements, strains and stresses.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.161-168
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• 2005

The influence of spandrel wall and fill above the extrados on the structural behavior and load capacity of stone masonry arch bridges has not been thoroughly studied yet. One can estimate the structural characteristics and behavior of stone masonry structures by measuring the dynamic characteristics. To investigate the influence of spandrel wall and fill on the dynamic characteristics of historic stone masonry arch bridges, on-site free vibration tests were performed for 5 stone bare arches with no spandrel wall and backfill. And the natural frequencies of those arches were compared with the natural frequencies of 18 stone arch bridges with spandrel walls. Experimental results show from the experiments show that the presence of spandrel wall and fill may increase the natural frequency of arch bridge because the stiffness increase exceeds the mass increase due to spandrel wall.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.61-69
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• 2011

It is hard to predict the mechanical characteristics of discontinuous stone masonry structures with the use of by the static analysis method, because of irregularity of face stones and also due to randomness of backfill materials. Inversely, one can estimate the mechanical characteristics by comparing the natural frequencies between measured from the field tests and computed from the analytical models. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness and confidence of the computational modeling method of ancient stone arch bridges in Korea and to find the factors influencing their dynamic characteristics. The results revealed that the rigidity of spandrel walls and backfill materials are the most important factors influencing the natural frequencies of stone arch bridges, which are the critical for the stability of the stone arch structure.