Load-bearing capacity of circular, pointed and elliptical masonry arches

The paper illustrates some results on a comparative evaluation of the load bearing capacity of three different types of masonry arches subjected to their own weight and the weight of an overlying vertical wall masonry. The arch types considered are those most commonly found in historical masonry buildings and bridges: circular, pointed and elliptical. The analyses have been conducted using two different complementary methods: the first a simple extension of the Durand-Claye stability area method; the second based on application of a non-linear elastic one-dimensional model, already used by the authors in prior studies. In all cases, it is assumed that the arch’s constituent materials has limited compressive strength and is unable to transmit tensions. In addition, the load transferred to the arch by the overlying wall is determined under the assumption that each vertical strip of wall bears directly down on the underlying arch element. Preliminary results reveal the clearly greater bearing capacity of the pointed arch with respect to the other types, thereby confirming a widely held conviction.