Essay On Arch Bridge

Arch bridge is one of the most popular types of bridges. 3000 years ago, it came into us and remained in height of popularity till industrial revolution and discovery of advanced materials that make engineers to create other modern bridge designs. However, arch bridges still in use even today, the arches may be built on much larger scales with helping of modern materials. The basic principle of arch bridge is the curved design, it does not push force of the load straight down, but instead the curve transport the load they to the supports on each end. These supports is the abutments. They carry the bridge all load and are responsible for holding the arch in his stable accurate position stable. Transporting the forces across the arch is done

As a result, masonry arch bridges are designed to be permanently under compression, so far as is possible. A temporary falsework frame construct each arch, known as a centering. In the first compression arch bridges, a keystone in the middle of the bridge bore the weight of the rest of the bridge. The more weight that was put onto the bridge, the more stronger it became. Masonry arch bridges use a quantity of fill material above the arch to increase the dead-weight on the bridge and prevent tension from occurring in the arch ring as loads move across the bridge. Other materials that were used to build this type of bridge were unreinforced concrete and brick. When masonry is used the angles of the faces are cut to minimize shear forces. Where random masonry (uncut and unprepared stones) is used they are mortared together and the mortar is allowed to set before the falsework is removed. Traditional masonry arches are generally durable, and somewhat resistant to settlement or undermining. However, relative to modern alternatives, such bridges are very heavy requiring extensive foundations. They are also expensive to build because labor costs are