Investigation of the arch in-plane buckling behaviour in arch bridges

A Finite Element Method model of a tension-tie arch bridge has been created in order to investigate the in-plane buckling length factor of the arches and to compare it with the corresponding value given by Eurocode 3. First a brief description of the analytical solutions and the Eurocode 3 provisions regarding the in-plane buckling of the arches is given. Subsequently the modelling of the tension-tie arch bridge in a FEM program, the bridges’ properties and the solution procedure are described. The parametrical analyses that were carried out follow later. The case of one cable missing (broken cable) is also investigated. Finally, the conclusions derived by the present research are presented at the end of this article.