ASSESSMENT OF BEHAVIOUR OF MASONRY ARCH BRIDGES USING INSTRUMENTATION & NUMERICAL MODELING

Abstract

Indian Railway is world’s largest railway system. This railway system was started established in British period. Prevalent loading and gauge of that period was meter gauge & bridge type was masonry arches or steel girder with masonry piers, hence most of our railway system in start was either narrow gauge or meter gauge and had masonry bridges. Subsequently in a planned way almost all narrow gauge and meter gauge lines have been converted to broad gauge; however in most of the gauge conversion bridges were not replaced, i.e. original masonry bridges were reused as it is or with minor modifications, such as top width extension or jacketing. At present total number of such masonry bridges in Indian Railway is approximately 129000 (One lakh twenty nine thousand). Out of this 129000 bridges almost around 50% are masonry arch bridges. As these arch bridges were not having any detailed design calculation, i.e. there dimensions were based on thumb rule. In due course of time, l...