Influence of the arch thickness discontinuities on the seismic capacity of masonry bridges

Arch bridges still represent a large component of rail and road infrastructure on the European continent. Their operation and safety maintenance is one of the main aims of the rail and road infrastructure managers. Maintenance strategies and bridge management begin with the structural assessment phase. The structural behaviour of masonry arches is very complex to evaluate and it is influenced from various parameters (geometric, mechanical and environmental). In this paper, the structural behaviour of arches with discontinuous thickness is analysed. In particular, the variation of the horizontal load resistance is evaluated by varying the ratio of the extension of the arch length with a smaller thickness and the ratio between the largest and the smaller thickness.