Numerical simulation of experiments on masonry arch bridges

The paper describes the numerical simulation of the loading tests up to failure carried out on a short-span, true-scale brick masonry arch bridge. The research was aimed at assessing the capability of different approaches on reproducing the real structural response presented along – the whole loading process. The arch was tested at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), collecting all the necessary data related to the materials properties and the test procedures, and registering the obtained experimental results. In this paper, the bi-dimensional finite elements simulations with appropriate constitutive equations for the materials are presented, covering: the brick masonry, the sand infill and the interfaces between infill and masonry.Postprint (published version