Experimental Study of Lateral Buckling of Arches

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to obtain lateral buckling loads of parabolic and circular arches subject to either uniform vertical or uniform tilt loading, or both. Free standing and restrained arches with either fixed or hinged end supports were tested. A comparison is made between experimentally and theoretically obtained buckling loads for 20 different arch tests with fair to good agreement. The investigation provides additional verification of theoretical solutions based on a linear buckling theory.