Load-Bearing Capacity of Masonry Arch Bridges Strengthened with Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites

摘要

This paper presents a new mechanism analysis method to calculate the ultimate load-bearing capacity of masonry arch bridges strengthened by externally bonding fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites on the intrados. The M-N relationship of a strengthened arch ring cross section is analysed and fully considered in the mechanism analysis. The complex Method of nonlinear programming is used to perform a constrained minimisation of the load function to obtain the minimum collapse load and its corresponding hinge positions.