PERGAMON Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472

The use of dynamic characteristics for the optimal design

of arches
A. Bensalem, A. Sibbald, C. A. Fair®eld
Department of Civil & Transportation Engineering, Napier University, 10 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5DT, U.K.
Received 18 January 1997; accepted 6 February 1998

Abstract

The objective of this work was to develop a method enabling the optimal design of arch bridges based on their
modal characteristics. The relationship between the resonant frequencies, a function of mass and sti€ness, and the
load carrying capacity of the arches was investigated. Natural frequency and dynamic direct implicit time
integration analyses were performed to determine the resonant frequencies and analyse the responses to impact
loading. Their collapse loads, under di€erent loading regimes, were also investigated using elasto-plastic non-linear
®nite element analysis. The collapse loads were found to be related to the resonant frequencies and an optimal
design could therefore be achieved. Under vertical loading, arches with span to rise ratios between 4 and 5 had both
the highest resonant frequencies and collapse loads. The proposed method is simple and applicable to other
structures as a design optimization tool. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Optimization; Arch bridges; Dynamic analysis; Finite element analysis

1. Introduction shapes of vibrating prismatic shells and folded plate

In recent years there have been signi®cant advances in
computer technology and there is a growing trend
towards the use of computer-based modelling in struc-
tural design and analysis procedures. Engineers are
often confronted with the problem of choosing the cor-
rect structural dimensions consistent with a safe, cost-
e€ective, aesthetically appealing balanced design. The
object of this investigation was to develop an optimiz-
ation method, based on modal analysis, that can help
engineers reach decisions on the geometry of the struc-
ture to be designed. The method was tested on steel
arch rings, where the main design parameter was the
span to rise ratio, s.
Many researchers have investigated various struc-
tural parameters for design optimisation. Hinton et
al. [1] developed an optimisation method for variable
thickness plates and shells. They investigated the opti-
mum thickness distribution as the geometric form of
the structure changed from a plate to a deep shell.
Hinton et al. [2] proposed a method for optimizing the
structures. A ®nite strip method was used to determine
the resonant frequencies and mode shapes. The funda-
mental frequency was maximized by changing the
thickness and shape design variables de®ning the cross-
section, with the constraint that the total structure's
volume remained constant. Bhatt and Bensalem [3, 4]
developed a method for optimising slab reinforcement
details using non-elastic stress ®elds. They found, both
numerically and experimentally, that using high levels
of plasticity stress distribution leads to a smoother lay-
out of steel and a more economical design. Bushnell
and Bushnell [5] developed an approximate method for
the optimum design of ring and stringer sti€ened
cylindrical panels and shells. They investigated the
likely buckling modes arising from three di€erent types
of internal imperfections and fed these forward into a
minimum weight design.
In the present work the problem of buckling was
ignored: a full literature list appears in Kang et al. [6].
It was assumed that the structure would fail in bending
and not through instability. This work aims to look at

0045-7949/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 9 2 - 3
462 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472

arch behaviour at di€erent span to rise ratios under

‰‰KŠ ÿ l‰MŠŠ‰fŠ ˆ 0 …1†
di€erent load regimes. Correlation of the arches' col-
lapse load with its modal characteristics was achieved [K] and [M] are the arches' global sti€ness and mass
and used as the basis for design optimization. matrices respectively. The eigenvalues, li are the free
Three ®nite element analyses were carried out. vibration frequencies, o2i (in units of (radsÿ1)2). The
Firstly, natural frequency analysis was performed to matrix [f] is composed of the eigenvectors {fi} repre-
extract the arches' resonant frequencies and mode senting the mode shape vectors.
shapes. Secondly, the arches were subjected to transi-
ent impact loading to analyse their dynamic responses
3.2. Dynamic ®nite element analysis
in both time and frequency domains. Finally, the struc-
tures were loaded to failure to study their behaviour
To simulate the dynamic time domain response of
under concentrated and uniformly distributed loads,
the arches to transient impact loading, the formulation
using a non-linear ®nite element model. The data, hav-
given by Eq. (2) was used.
ing the bene®t of being that required for the condition
monitoring/non-destructive testing of arch bridges, is ‰MŠf _
u…t†g ‡ ‰CŠfu…t†g ‡ ‰KŠfu…t†g ˆ fF…t†g …2†
thus dual purpose.
In Eq. (2), {uÈ(t)}, {uÇ (t)} and {u(t)} are the nodal accel-
eration, velocity, and displacement vectors of the struc-
ture respectively. {F(t)}is the time dependent impact
2. The structural properties of the arches modelled
force vector applied to the structure. The matrix [C]
represents the damping coecient of the structure
A total of seven arches each with constant span, L
which was assumed to have no e€ect in the present
of 2 m; ring thickness, t of 0.1025 m; and width, B
analysis. Eq. (2) represents a di€erential equation
across the span of 1.114 m were analysed. The arches'
which was numerically integrated using direct implicit
span to depth ratios were varied so that 2 R sR 8. All
time integration. The Newmark scheme [7] was used
the arches were analysed as if they were of steel con-
for its solution.
struction having a uniaxial yield strength, sy of 480
Since the load applied was very small, the steel com-
Nmmÿ2 and modulus of elasticity, E of 195 kNmmÿ2.
prising the arch was considered to be perfectly elastic.
The post-yielding behaviour of the steel was assumed
The arches' responses were obtained in the time
to fellow the second `line' of the adopted bi-linear ma-
domain and subsequently transformed to the frequency
terial model. The arches had ®xed supports at each
domain using a fast Fourier transform technique [8].
springer in both the x and y-directions. The arches
The adopted numerical model has already provided
were of uniform cross-section along their spans.
good predictions of the behaviour of arcuate structures
made of brickwork [9, 10]. It should be emphasized
that the behaviour of steel arches is di€erent from
3. The ®nite element model adopted
those constructed with concrete or masonry materials.
The steel arches have higher resonant frequencies com-
In order to have con®dence in the accuracy of the
pared to those in concrete or masonry, however the
®nite element analysis a sensitivity study was carried
trend of changes in the resonant frequencies as well as
out with mesh size as the input variable. Mesh discreti-
the mode shapes are similar. The main di€erence is in
zations of 3  30 and 3  15 were found to be ade-
the arches' behaviour when loaded up to onset of non-
quate for the analysis of full and half span models
linearity; that is cracking (or crushing) for brickwork
respectively. The full span model was adopted for the
or concrete and yielding for steel arches. The arches
natural frequency analysis and for all asymmetric load
constructed of brickwork or concrete have very low
cases; for symmetrical load cases the half span model
tensile strength compared to those of steel. In this
was used to minimize CPU and post-processing time.
work the dynamic behaviour of the arches was only
An eight noded, isoparametric, 2-D element was
studied at low levels of loading insucient to cause
adopted throughout. Nine point, 3  3 Gaussian inte-
non-linearity.
gration was used over each element. The following sec-
tions describe the di€erent analyses undertaken.
3.3. Non-linear static ®nite element analysis for collapse
3.1. Natural frequency analysis load estimation

The usual modal analysis of an undamped ®nite el- For this analysis the steel comprising the arches was
ement system was carried out by performing the sol- assumed to be in a state of plane stress. It was mod-
ution of the classical eigenvalue problem presented in elled as an elasto-plastic continuum with yield being
Eq. (1). governed by the von Mises criterion [11] whilst obeying
 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472 463

the normality rule [12]. In terms of principal stresses, If no strain hardening is allowed, di€erentiating the
s1 and s2, the yield criterion can be represented in yield criterion gives Eq. (11) below.
dimensionless form by Eq. (3). @F @F @F
 2     2 dF ˆ dsx ‡ dsy ‡ dtxy ˆ 0 …11†
s1 s1 s2 s2 @sx @sy @txy
ÿ ‡ ˆ1 …3†
sy sy sy sy This may also be expressed in the form given by
If strain hardening is taken into account then the uni- Eq. (12).
axial yield stress, sy increases with plastic strain. aT ds ˆ 0 …12†

3.3.1. Incremental stress±strain relationships
In the following section the salient equations
involved in the adopted elasto±plastic constitutive
model are summarised.
The total strain increment dE is the sum of dEe repre-
senting the elastic component of the strain and dEp
representing the irreversible plastic component of the
strain as shown in Eq. (4).
dE ˆ dEe ‡ dEp …
The elastic strain increment is calculated in the conven-
tional way as Eq. (5) below.
dEe ˆ ‰DŠÿ1 ds …
Here, ds is the incremental stress vector and D is the
elasticity matrix. In this formulation, it is assumed that
the material is isotropic and the familiar equations in
terms of Young's modulus and Poison's ratio are used
to calculate each element of the D matrix. Using the
normality rule, a relationship between plastic strain
increment, dEp and the corresponding stress increment,
ds is obtained. Following on from this the incremental
plastic strain dEp is normal to the yield surface at the
point considered, and is given by Eq. (6).
dEp ˆ dla …
We can also further de®ne the yield function as shown
in Eq. (7).
   
@F @F @F @F
ˆ aT ˆ ; ; …7†
@s @sx @sy @txy
The yield criterion function, F de®nes the yield surface
and dl is a positive constant of proportionality, as yet
unde®ned, known as the plastic multiplier. Using the
above equations, the total strain increment dEp can be
written as shown in Eq. (8) with the total stress incre-
ment then calculated by Eq. (9).
dE ˆ ‰DŠÿ1 ds ‡ dl a …
ds ˆ DdE ÿ dlD a …
The yield function can be expressed in terms of stress,
s and strain hardening parameter, h. This is shown by
Eq. (10).
F…s; h† ˆ f …s† ÿ k…h† ˆ 0 …10†
Multiplying both sides of Eq. (8), the expression for
dE, by aT D, gives Eq. (13).
aT DdE ˆ aT D‰DŠÿ1 ds ‡ aT D dl a …13†
T
Noting that, according to (12), a ds is equal to zero
and that D[D]ÿ1=1, the following expression, Eq. (14)
may be obtained for dl:
aT DdE
dl ˆ …14†
4† aT Da
Knowing the value of dl the incremental stress±strain
relationship in the plastic region is given by Eq. (15).
 
5† DaaT D
ds ˆ D ÿ T dE …15†
a Da
A bi-linear stress±strain relationship was adopted and
an incremental iterative procedure was used [12, 13]. A
load factor of 0.5 of the applied load of 42 kN was
used at the ®rst increment of each analysis. This incre-
mental load factor was applied for the other incre-
ments and automatically reduced if convergence was
not reached at subsequent increments. This was
achieved by using the previous incremental load factor
and storing the current state of the arch, e.g. sti€ness
matrices, for the converged increment. A maximum of
6†
30 iterations at each increment were allowed in all ana-
lyses. Using di€erent values for the tolerance of 5, 4, 3,
2 and 1%, it was found that the results were similar. A
tolerance of 2% was adopted. The element sti€ness
was computed at the ®rst iteration of the ®rst incre-
ment and at each of the subsequent iterations if con-
vergence was not obtained in the ®rst iteration.
4. Results
The following sections presents the results of the
three analyses carried out namely: natural frequency
8† analysis, implicit dynamic analysis, and non-linear sta-
tic analysis for collapse load determination.
9†
4.1. Natural frequency analysis
The mode shapes of the four lowest modes of vi-
bration are presented in Fig. 1 for arches having
s = 2, 4, and 8. The ®rst and second modes of
464 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472

vibration were independent of span to rise ratio, s: form of vibration underwent mode conversion to
they are longitudinal and vertical single bending modes double vertical bending as s increased. Fig. 2 shows
respectively. The third mode of vibration for s = 2 the resonant frequencies of the arch rings in relation to
and s = 3 was a double longitudinal bending. This their span to rise ratios. This shows that the resonant

Fig. 1. Mode shapes for various arches.

 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472
Fig. 2. The relationship between resonant frequencies and
span to rise ratio.
frequency of the arches' vertical bending mode
increased up to s = 5; for s>5 the resonant frequen-
cies decreased. The total mass of each arch is plotted
against s in Fig. 3: in general, as s increased the total
mass decreased. This is logical: at s = 2 the curved
length of the arch is maximised as the pro®le is semi-
circular, as s increases the arch tends to the straight
line shortest distance between the springers as s 4 1.
The resonant frequencies, as presented in Eq. (1), are a
function of the arch's mass and sti€ness. It was
expected that the resonant frequencies would decrease
when the mass increased, because, in general, the res-
onant frequencies are inversely proportional to the
square root of the total mass of the structure [14, 15].
This was not found to be the case, especially for the
vertical bending type mode of vibration. The resonant
frequency of the vertical bending mode of vibration
for s = 2 was 198 Hz, s = 5 was 366 Hz and s = 8
was 304 Hz. The semicircular arch (s = 2) has a total
mass some 40% greater than the total mass of the
s = 5 arch: in contrast the value of the resonant fre-
quencies decreased for s>5.
Fig. 3. The relationship between total mass and span to rise
ratio.
465
Generalising the results require reference to the
authors' previous work [14, 15] where a parametric
study on shape and ring thickness was carried out.
Key results in partial di€erential form were;
@f @f
ˆ12:2 Hz; 10;
@s @width=span
@f
ˆ0:2 Hz=mm:
@thickness
All the studied arches were circular segmental archesÐ
future research to ®nd the e€ect of geometry upon
elliptical arches is recommended.
Interestingly, this implied that there was an increase
in global sti€ness a€ecting the modes of vibration.
This led to the idea of investigating any possible re-
lationship between this sti€ness increase and the
arches' load carrying capacities. This will be discussed
in the following sections. Although simple static elastic
load±de¯ection calculations could give the same result
as these dynamic calculations at much less cost, they
would convey to the analyst nothing of the system
behaviour under dynamic or vibrating load regimes. In
bridge design the aim is often not merely pursuit of
the optimal static sti€ness, but its achievement concur-
rent with a safe magnitude±frequency response.
4.2. Dynamic time integration
The dynamic analysis was carried out to study the
arches' responses to transient impact loading. The
arches were subjected to a load of the same amplitude.
A time step of 0.4 ms was adopted throughout the
analysis. Fig. 4 shows the displacement±time responses
for the arches having s = 2 and s = 3, when subjected
to vertical impact loading at the crown. The amplitude
of the vibration of the arch with s = 3 is 30% lower
than the amplitude of the s = 2 arch. This decrease is
desirable in practice because the ¯atter, shallower arch
will de¯ect less under this form of load. This may limit
structural damage due to trac loading. As mentioned
previously, the total mass of the arch also decreased as
s increased. This leads to a more economical design in
terms of the amount of raw material consumed, re-
duced mass requiring to be transported (usually by
road) to the construction site, and greatly reduced heavy
lift and site handling requirements during erection.
The arches' time domain responses were transformed
to the frequency domain. Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the in-
stantaneous spectra of the response at the crown. As s
increased, up to s = 5, the position of the peak repre-
senting the resonant frequency of the vertical bending
mode gradually shifts towards higher frequencies. The
results con®rmed those obtained by natural frequency
analysis. The amplitude of the spectra, at resonance,
was also decreasing as s increases.
466 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472
Fig. 4. Displacement±time plot for force and response at the crown.
The ®rst mode of vibration was not seen in the re-
sponse signals. This was mainly because both the exci-
tation force and measured response were in the vertical
direction. To excite this mode the force and response
must have a horizontal component. Purely vertical
input excitation would do no work in an orthogonal
direction and could not therefore excite any associated
modes of vibration.
4.3. Non-linear static ®nite element analysis for collapse
load estimation
The arches' load carrying capacities were investi-
gated using a non-linear ®nite element model. The
arches were loaded with: a strip, or line load at the
crown, a strip, or line load at one 1/4-span point, or a
uniformly distributed vertical load. The results are pre-
sented in the following sections.
4.3.1. Vertical strip, or line load at the crown
The arches were loaded by a strip load applied verti-
cally at the crown. Consideration of symmetry allowed
half the arch to be analysed. Fig. 6(a) shows the load±
de¯ection plots for the arches. As s increased to 5 the
collapse load increased; for s>5 the collapse load
decreased. This re¯ected the ®ndings obtained using
the natural frequency and dynamic time integration
analyses. It should be noted that s = 4 and s = 5
arches had very similar collapse loads. Their corre-
sponding resonant frequencies for the vertical bending
mode were almost equal. The collapse load increased
by 30% when s increased from 2 to 5. Arches with
4 R sR 5 had sti€er load±de¯ection plots. Fig. 6(b)
shows the load±strain curves for arches' intrados
crown point; again it can be seen that the s = 5 arch
was sti€er. The semicircular (s = 2) arch was the least
sti€ most notably above an applied total force along
the strip of 84 kN where yielded zones covered most
of the arch. The onset of yield started at similar loads
implying that sti€er arches having 4 R sR 5 behaved in
a more ductile manner. This is desirable in practice as
it leads to a safer design avoiding the inherent dangers
of brittle failure.
The particular correlation between sti€ness and load
carrying capacity implicit in Fig. 6(a) is only applicable
for this geometry. Future research to develop design
charts covering a wider range of parameters;
span:thickness, span:width may be worthwhile. The
correlation discussed here would, in general terms
apply universally but in details would change.
4.3.2. Vertical strip, or line load at one 1/4-span point
A strip, or line load was applied vertically to one 1/
4-span point. The results presented in Fig. 7 show that
the collapse loads were practically independent of span
with the exception of the semicircular (s = 2) case,
where the collapse load was higher than that for the
remaining arches. This was expected because vertical
load was better transmitted to the nearest support for
lower span to rise ratios. The di€erence between col-
lapse loads over the range 2 < s < 8 was only 13%.
As mentioned in Section 4.3.1 above, the relationships
implied by Fig. 7 depend, for their numerical values,
upon geometrical factors, e.g. the span : width and the
ring thickness.
4.3.3. Horizontal strip, or line load at one 1/4-span
point
A horizontal strip, or line load was applied at a 1/4-
span point. As shown in Fig. 8 there was a signi®cant
di€erence between the collapse loads of the arches as s
increased from 2 to 8. The highest collapse load, under
this regime, was obtained for the s = 8 arch. The same
span to rise ratio had a higher resonant frequency for the
 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472 467

Fig. 5. Instantaneous spectra: responses measured at the crown (a) Ratio, s = 2 to s = 5; (b) Ratio, s = 6 to s = 8.

®rst mode of vibration which was horizontal bending.
Compared to the semicircular (s = 2) arch, the collapse
load of the s = 4 arch was almost doubled. For the
s = 5 arch the capacity tripled over that obtained for the
s = 2 case as shown in Fig. 8. The resonant frequency of
the horizontal bending mode for the s = 5 arch increased
by 120% compared to that obtained for the s = 2 arch
as was shown in Fig. 2. The increase in collapse load was
due to the way the applied forces were transmitted to the
supports as s increased. In practice, such horizontal
forces can be generated on arch bridges by braking or
cornering vehicles. Design charts, based on parametric
studies involving load and di€erent arch geometries
should, for future research, be derived from this analysis.
This could provide a 3D design surface version of Fig. 8
where sti€ness and capacity e€ects could be correlated
over a wider range of variables than were possible within
this paper.
468 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472

Fig. 6. (a) The e€ect of a vertical concentrated load at the crown. (b) Load±strain curves at the crown under vertical concentrated
crown load.

4.3.4. Uniformly distributed vertical load
A uniformly distributed vertical load was applied to
the arches. Fig. 9 shows the load±de¯ection curves. The
lowest collapse loads were obtained for the s = 2 and
s = 8 arches. The highest collapse loads were obtained
over the range 3 < s < 4: the collapse load for the
s = 3 arch was approximately 50% higher than that
obtained for the semicircular (s = 2) arch. The arches'
load carrying capacities were all higher than those perti-
nent to vertical line, or strip loading at the crown only;
A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472 469

Fig. 7. Strip load at 1/4-span, vertical direction.

Fig. 8. Strip load at 1/4-span, horizontal direction.

470 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472
Fig. 9. Vertical uniformly distributed load.
this was shown in Fig. 6. This was due to the con®ne-
ment of the thrustline within the arch under the in¯u-
ence of the uniformly distributed load. In the absence of
this uniformly distributed load the eccentricity of the
thrustline has more scope to deviate from the arch's neu-
tral axis precipitating earlier onset of the eventual col-
lapse mechanism.
From the analyses conducted, arches with span to
rise ratios between 4 and 5 can be adopted, as they
provided the highest load carrying capacities, lower
de¯ections, and less mass of material used in their con-
struction. Large cost savings on raw material alone
could be made by adopting the right choice of span to
rise ratio for accurate construction. This optimization
method proved useful in reaching such design de-
cisions. The method was simple and required only pre-
liminary natural frequency analysis which was very
cheap in terms of computer processing time. For refer-
ence, the natural frequency analysis occupied approxi-
mately 5 and 7% of the total CPU time used for the
200 time steps required for the dynamic, and non-lin-
ear static analyses, respectively.
5. Comparisons with Currently Available Data
An experimental programme will be necessary to
verify the ®ndings. It will also be of interest to study
the e€ects of spandrel walls, and possible compacted
soil back®lling on the system's behaviour under both
dynamic and static load. This study could be extended
to other materials such as reinforced concrete and
brickwork, blockwork, or stonework masonry which
are extensively for arch bridges, tunnels, culverts, and
vaulted structures.
It should be emphasized that although the ®ndings
of this paper were obtained solely from steel arches,
the analysis can be extended to arches made with other
materials as long as the loading levels stay within the
serviceability limit. An extensive experimental testing
programme is under way at Napier University to study
the method's applicability to arches constructed with
brickwork and concrete materials, both experimentally
and numerically.
Currently available data enables valuable compari-
sons to be drawn with the theoretical results presented
here. Small scale tests to collapse on timber arches
over 0.75 m span were carried out by Fair®eld and
Ponniah [16]. Semicircular (s = 2) pro®les had collapse
loads of only 75% of those pertaining to a ¯atter
s = 4 arch for load points above one springer. For 1/
4-span loading the s = 2 arch had only between 20
and 45% of the load carrying capacity of an s = 4
arch under identical load. For each pro®le tested mini-
mum collapse loads were found for loading at points
slightly closer to the crown than one 1/4-span point.
This was in accordance with the ®ndings presented
from the ®nite element analysis on bare steel arches.
 A. Bensalem et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 461±472
Arch model tests to collapse, at various scales, have
been carried out by Hendry and a wide range of co-
workers [17]. The failure loads are not directly compar-
able as consistency of dimensions in¯uencing both fail-
ure mechanism and collapse load were not achieved
between test sets. Di€erent arch ring thicknesses or ®ll
depths were used for each span to rise ratio making
normalization of the data for comparative purposes
extremely dicult. However, changing the ring thick-
nesses of Hendry's arches to render them consistent
for the three s values tested (s = 6.4, 3.4, and 2) and
running the data through a typical mechanism package
(ARCHIE) [18] allow better comparison of the collapse
loads. The following are based on line loading across
the span at one 1/3-span point. At s = 6.4, collapse
loads in the range 1.75 kN to 2.00 kN were recorded
for the 0.038 m thick bare arch ring. This is an actual
experimental value [17] and no attempt at normaliza-
tion has been made. At s = 3.4 the collapse load was
between 2.6 kN and 2.7 kN for the same ring thick-
ness. At s = 2 the collapse load was between 1.1 kN
and 1.2 kN for the same ring thickness. Data for
s = 3.4 and s = 2 were generated by ARCHIE [18] in
an attempt to compare di€erent sets of experiments.
Whilst not wishing to ascribe undue accuracy to ana-
lytically derived collapse load predictions, the trend of
maximum collapse load occurring at span to rise ratios
between s = 3 and s = 4 is borne out by the data.
This compares well with the authors' ®nite element
analysis.
As a ®nal comparison the authors chose optimiz-
ation data presented by Tadjbakhsh [19]. Adopting
Euler±Bernoulli buckling theory Tadjbakhsh aimed to
produce optimized, momentless arch pro®les. In his
buckling equations maximum buckling loads arose for
pro®les in the range 2.7 < s < 3.3. The buckling load
at s = 2 was 85% of the maximum at 2.7 < s < 3.3.
These results are similar to those arising from the
authors' optimization presented above. Whereas
Tadjbakhsh's work [19] continued by producing
momentless pro®les, these were felt to be impractical
and undesirable. Simple steel sections would suce for
the near-optimum pro®les presented where the key
variable was span to rise ratio. Reliance on a design
being momentless may be risky given inherent con-
struction problems such as member lack of ®t on site,
temperature changes, and basic tolerances on section
manufacture.
6. Conclusions
The e€ect of di€erent span to rise ratios both on the
modal characteristics and the collapse load were success-
fully studied for arch rings. A relationship was found
between the resonant frequencies and the load carrying
471
capacities of such arches. A span to rise ratio between 4
and 5 resulted in higher collapse loads under concen-
trated vertical loads as would be the case in practice. It
is not yet clear whether this increase was due to better
transmission of load to the supports or an increase in
overall sti€ness and hence, capacity. An experimental
study is needed to verify the theoretical ®ndings. In this
way, an optimum design can be achieved by balancing
the total weights of the arches, which depend on their
shapes, and the desired sti€ness. This optimization
method is simple and requires only natural frequency
analysis of the structure. The method can be generalized
and extended to other types of structures such as: tun-
nels, curved beams, truss structures, culverts, or brick-
work sewers, to assist engineers making preliminary
design decisions.
References
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optimisation of variable thickness plates and shells.
Engng Comp 1993;10:291±306.
[2] Hinton E, Osakca M, Rao NVR. Structural shape
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