Elasto-plastic out-of-plane buckling strength of through type and half-through type arch bridges are analyzed by a finite element method which is capable of considering finite displacements and yielding of materials. Examining the numerical results and using an analogy between an arch and a column, we propose a method to determine the slenderness parameter for arch bridges. A designer can use the slenderness parameter to obtain an ultimate stress for arches by substituting it into a column strength formula. The predictions by the proposed procedure are shown to be fairly good correspondence with all of numerical results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.