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Structural Design of Brick Masonry Arches: Technical Notes

This document summarizes the structural design of brick masonry arches. It discusses the loads that minor arches must support, such as floors, roofs, and walls, and provides a method to calculate these loads. For major arches with spans over 6 feet or rise-to-span ratios greater than 0.15%, the document gives an example of design based on equations that analyze redundant forces and moments. It also discusses the capabilities of brick arches based on historical examples and provides assumptions used to calculate thrust coefficients and design equations.

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101 views

Structural Design of Brick Masonry Arches: Technical Notes

This document summarizes the structural design of brick masonry arches. It discusses the loads that minor arches must support, such as floors, roofs, and walls, and provides a method to calculate these loads. For major arches with spans over 6 feet or rise-to-span ratios greater than 0.15%, the document gives an example of design based on equations that analyze redundant forces and moments. It also discusses the capabilities of brick arches based on historical examples and provides assumptions used to calculate thrust coefficients and design equations.

Uploaded by

Karan makhija
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reissued*

July
Brick Institute of America 11490 Commerce Park Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091 1986

STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF BRICK MASONRY ARCHES


INTRODUCTION MINOR ARCH LOADING
The railway bridge at Maidenhead, England, The loads falling upon a minor arch may con­
constructed in 1838, is a brick arch with a span of sist of live loads and dead loads from floors, roofs,
128 ft and a rise of 24.3 ft. This arch was designed walls and other structural members. These are
by engineer Marc Brunel, who i s also credited applied as point _loads or as uniform loads fully
with being the first to use reinforced brick or partially distributed. A method of determining
masonry. A similar brick arch railway bridge imposed loads on a member spanning small open­
was constructed on North Avenue, Baltimore, ings is described in Technical Notes, No. 17H.
Maryland, in 1895. It has a span of 130 ft and a A brief resume of that explanation is given here.
rise of 26 ft. These outstanding examples are The dead load of a wall above an arch may
cited only to illustrate the structural capabilities be assumed to be the weight of wall contained
of the brick arch-capabilities on which designers within a triangle immediately above the opening.
may rely when architectural or structural con• The sides of this triangle are at 45-deg angles
siderations suggest their use in modern design. to the base. Therefore, its height is ¼ of the
This issue of Technical Notes covers the struc­ span. Such triangular loading may be assumed
tural design of major and minor brick masonry to be equivalent to a uniformly distributed load
arches. of 11/a times the triangular load.
,· Minor arches are those whose spans do not Superimposed uniform loads above this tri­
) exceed 6 ft and with maximum rise-to-span ratios angle may be carried by arching action of the
of 0.15. Coefficients are given from which the masonry wall itself. Uniform live and dead loads
horizontal thrust of such arches may be deter­ occurring below the apex of the triangle are ap-
mined. Equations are presented for obtaining
compressive stresses developed in the masonry
and for determining stability against sliding.
Derivation of thrust coefficients and equations
are based on the hypothesis of least crown thrust,
as described in Technical Notes, No. 31, and the
following assumptions have been made:
1. The thrust at the crown is horizontal and
passes through the upper 1/a point of the
arch.
2. The reaction passes through the lower 1/a point
of the arch at the skewback.
3. The equilibrium polygon lies completely within SEGMENTAl ARCH
the middle ½ of the arch.
Figure 1 illustrates jack and segmental
arches.
Major arches are those with spans in excess
of 6 ft or rise-to-span ratios greater than 0.15.
In this issue of Technical Notes an example is
given of major arch design based on the equa­
tions for redundant moments and forces pre­
sented in the publication, "Frames and Arches" 1•
)The method of analysis presented in this book
'-.Jis substantially shorter than others in current
use. JACK ARCH
1 "Frames and Arches," by Valerian Leontovich, McGraw FIG. 1
Hill Book Co., 1959.
"Originally published in October 1967, lh.is 'lechnical NO!eS has been reviewed and reissued with edicorial changes.

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