Limit Analysis For Historical Masonry Bridge With Cfrp Reinforcements

This paper deals with the collapse behavior of a historical masonry arch bridge subject to combined seismic loads, by means of the limit analysis and shakedown theorems. A finite element modal analysis and seismic load evaluation was performed building a program code. The assessment of the collapse loads and shakedown multiplier, consisting of corresponding nonlinear constrained optimization problems, were analyzed using lower bound theorems of the limit analysis and shakedown theory, respectively. Because the retrofitting of this structure cannot be performed in the intrados surface, the application of CFRP strips on the extrados of the arch is a useful and valuable technique, as shown by a significant increase of the limit and shakedown multipliers