CURVED THICK SHELL FEM ANALYSIS OF CURVED PLATE ARCH BRIDGE AND ITS TEST STUDY

This paper for the first time put forward an analysis of curved plate arch bridges with curved thick shell elements. The performance of the curved thick shell elements has been compared favourably against the results obtained from the 3D-solid elements analysis and the experimental results. It shows that the curved thick shell element analysis of curved plate arch bridges is quite valid. The curved plate arch bridges may be analysed with the IBM personal computer.