Comparison between available assessment methods of historical masonry arches

The aim of this paper is to compare each other the main analytical and numerical methods for the assessment of masonry arch bridges, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. The methods are mainly three: i) the Thrust Line Analysis Method; ii) the Mechanism Method; iii) the Finite Element Method. In addition a particular closed-form approach has been recently developed, the Elastio-Plastic Method. The Thrust Line Analysis Method and the Mechanism Method are analytical methods and are based on two of the fundamental theorems of the Plastic Analysis, while the Finite Element Method is a numerical method that uses different strategies of discretization to analyze these structures