Among the most characteristic structures in historical constructions for crossing large spans are the masonry vaulted structures by utilizing their geometric stability to safely transfer the loads to supports with regard to their negligible tensile strength. The ability of masonry piers to bear such transferred stresses and safely convey them to the support is directly related to their structural integrity, as well as to a number of other factors. Using an in-house limit analysis code, a study on the crucial parameters impacting the safety level of piers under the thrust of arches is performed. Parameters such as pier texture, joint friction angle, and arch shallowness, namely, shallow, semi-circular, and pointed arches, were investigated under three load scenarios: horizontal and concentrated vertical live load applied at mid-span and quarter-span. The main findings of this work show that all studied parameters have a significant influence on the structure response. Higher friction values, sharper arches, and piers that follow the rule of art result in higher collapse multipliers. Furthermore, this work emphasizes the importance of accounting for the sliding mechanism and masonry texture, parameters that are often neglected.

The majority of built heritage covering large spans are built with curved masonry components, such as multi-ring arches, to attain greater overall thickness. Their ultimate structural capacity when subjected to external loads is significantly influenced by the various construction techniques utilized. Such structures are made up of independent rings that communicate with one another through interface contacts, and the geometrical features, like size, orientation, and the arrangement of units, play a significant role, as do the mechanical characteristics, like friction. Multi-ring arches subjected to a vertical load at quarter span are assessed utilizing an in-house code implementing the upper bound approach of the limit analysis for masonry structures. The formulation of a script for geometry generation has been given and used for the input to the code. A discrete model has been adopted accounting for a combination of size and disposition of blocks, friction angle, number of rings and the span length are taken into account. Following their combination of impacts in terms of collapse multipliers, which are classified as per respective influencing parameters, each one’s importance was demonstrated by classifying them into two major groups as per unit size. The outcomes showed that all the parameters were key influencing factors in the performance of such structures. Using relatively larger units enhanced the impact of interlocking and provided larger collapse multipliers. While interlocking played a more significant role when span was considered, it together with friction had a larger impact when ring number was varied, such that better interlocking and larger friction values provided higher collapse multipliers.

For each one of the simulations performed from the parametric analysis of masonry pointed arches with limit analysis, this database contains a .txt, a .vtk and a .png file. In the .txt file the elapsed time and the collapse multiplier of each simulation can be found. The .vtk file contains all the geometry and displacement values of every masonry panel. Finally, the .png file presents the collapse mechanism obtained.