Structural Behaviour of Masonry Arch Retaining Walls

Rathnayake, Hasini Sumuditha

Structural Behaviour of Masonry Arch Retaining Walls

dc.contributor.advisor	Shrive, Nigel Graham
dc.contributor.author	Rathnayake, Hasini Sumuditha
dc.contributor.committeemember	Duncan, Neil Alexander
dc.contributor.committeemember	Wong, Ron Chik-Kwong
dc.contributor.committeemember	Sudak, Leszek Jozef
dc.contributor.committeemember	Malomo, Daniele
dc.date	2024-11
dc.date.accessioned	2024-06-20T18:30:25Z
dc.date.available	2024-06-20T18:30:25Z
dc.date.issued	2024-06-19
dc.description.abstract	Recently, a novel experiment explored the possibility of employing low-rise arch masonry walls to resist earth pressure. The system proved to have several advantages: minimal deflection, ease of construction, cost-effectiveness, and aesthetic appearance. The authors established that the idea could work but did not study the influence of any of the parameters involved. To address this limitation and to further investigate the performance of arch masonry retaining walls, six masonry arch walls were constructed using half-scale concrete blocks and modular cored bricks. The test walls had an equivalent span of 2 m and two different span-to-rise ratio, 0.17 and 0.35. The walls were built inside a rigid concrete tank, and the arch bases were cemented to the concrete base with a mortar joint. Arches were subjected to soil pressure and surcharge load: displacements and strains were measured. The walls demonstrated stability and maintained their structural integrity without significant lateral deformations. The experiment yielded successful results, as the arch masonry walls exhibited deflections less than 0.1% of the backfill height. A simplified finite element micromodel has been developed using ABAQUS software to simulate and study the structure in detail, allowing variation of the parameters intrinsic to such walls. The influences of the rise-to-span ratio, height, and grouting pattern on the performance of the arch were explored. For a given wall width, a curved hollow arch wall profile was found to increase the maximum sustained pressure more so than grouting a flat wall: for the same height and span, a curved hollow arched wall with a rise-to-span ratio of 0.25 resisted 37% more pressure than a grouted planar wall. Thus, by combining the information obtained from the experiment and the numerical modelling, masonry arch retaining walls may be seen as an economical and stable alternative to conventional methods of constructing earth-retaining structures.
dc.identifier.citation	Rathnayake, H. S. (2024). Structural behaviour of masonry arch retaining walls (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/119003
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/46599
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Masonry
dc.subject	Retaining wall
dc.subject	Arch
dc.subject	Finite element
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Civil
dc.title	Structural Behaviour of Masonry Arch Retaining Walls
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Engineering – Civil
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.