Recent Research and Application of Arch Bridges in China

Abstract

Recent research and engineering applications of arch bridges are discussed in this paper. About 19 stone arch bridges with spans greater than 100 m have been built in China. A research program on Ultra-High Performance Mortar (UHPM) for use in stone arch bridges is currently being conducted. The woven timber arch bridge is a unique structure consisting of two longitudinal polygonal arch rib systems, research on woven timber arch bridge have been conducted to understand the structural behavior of these arch bridges. For concrete arch bridges, the current record span of 445 m belongs to the Beipanjiang Bridge. Furthermore, the design and model tests of an Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) arch bridge are presented. The applications of steel and Concrete-Filled Steel Tube (CFST) arch bridges in China are discussed. Finally, new types of steel-concrete hybrid arch bridges are briefly introduced.