AHMAD, SYED1; SWIFT, GARETH2; LEVINGSHAN, AUGUSTHUS NELSON3;

1) Mr, University of Salford, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, s.h.s.ahmad@edu.salford.ac.uk

2) Dr, University of Salford, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, g.m.swift@salford.ac.uk

3) Dr, University of Salford, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, l.augusthusnelson@salford.ac.uk

Back-filled masonry arches behave in a discontinuous manner, where deformation is governed by interaction at joints and the soil-masonry interface. A discrete element approach is used in order to explicitly model the interactions at discontinuities. A full scale back-filled masonry arch, confined within a stiff, frictionless (plain-strain) chamber was constructed under laboratory conditions and subjected to monotonic quasi-static loading. The test was modelled as a discontinuous system using the Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) which computes the kinematics of a system of interacting bodies in a time-explicit formulation. A Mohr- Coulomb material model is attributed to the back-fill and discontinuities including the masonry joints and the soil-masonry interface. Force and displacement data, computed at the discontinuities reveals the behaviour of the arch and is used to analyse the interaction between the soil and masonry in the presence of both active and passive soil pressures as loading progresses.

Keywords: arch, bridge, UDEC, discontinuous, soil