Fatigue behaviour of single-ring brick masonry arches
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Xie, Jingjing
Grosman, Stanyslav
Fang, Qili
Macorini, Lorenzo
Izzuddin, Bassam A
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Inspections of defective masonry bridges and viaducts still in service have shown that repeated heavy traffic loading may accelerate the deterioration of masonry materials, thereby reducing bridge performance. These observations have highlighted the need to account for fatigue effects when evaluating the serviceability and ultimate behaviour of masonry arch bridges. However, this is hindered by the lack of realistic material descriptions based on experimental evidence of the deterioration of strength and stiffness in masonry materials under high-cycle loading. This paper presents and analyses the results of physical experiments on the fatigue response of single-ring brick masonry arch specimens. These are the first of their kind to explore the continuous evolution of both global and local response characteristics, including crack openings, shear sliding, and compression strains until fatigue failure. Digital image correlation is employed to continuously monitor full-field displacements and strains, providing insights into the deterioration of mortar joints under shear and bending stresses during the high-cycle fatigue tests. Detailed numerical models are also used to aid the interpretation of the experimental results, indicating that mortar joint stiffness degradation induced by high-cycle loading is pivotal in producing the 30% reduction in load capacity observed in the experiments.
Date Issued
2026-09-12
Date Acceptance
2026-07-06
Citation
Construction and Building Materials, 2026, 539
ISSN
0950-0618
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Journal / Book Title
Construction and Building Materials
Volume
539
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
147380
Date Publish Online
2026-07-22