JAFARI, FARSHAD¹; HEJAZI, MEHRDAD²

1) Mr., Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Department of Civil Engineering, Iran, jafari.farshad@gmail.com

2) Dr., University of Isfahan, Department of Civil Engineering, Iran, m.hejazi@eng.ui.ac.ir & mm.hejazi@yahoo.com

One of the most important, valuable and remarkable elements of Persian architecture is brick masonry arch. The effect of a brick arrangement in the fabric of arches, such as Roman and barrel arrangements, on structural behaviour of brick masonry arches has been a serious controversy among architects and structural engineers for many years. In this study, micro-modelling finite element technique has been used to analyse Persian four-centred arches with two different brick arrangements under static weight load. Analyses have been carried out and obtained results have been discussed to describe the effect of brick arrangement on structural behaviour of analysed arches. A comprehensive comparison between the Roman and barrel four-centred arches indicates that from structural viewpoint the behaviour of the barrel arches is more satisfactory than the Roman ones, in particular in drop arches. Also, drop arches have a better structural performance among all of the four-centred arches.

Keywords: arch, Roman, barrel, brick arrangement, mortar, stress.