Stone bridge refers to a bridge constructed with stone materials. There are stone beam bridges and stone arch bridges with a long history. Luoyang Bridge and Lugou Bridge are stone beam bridges in Chinese history, but stone beam bridges can only be used in pedestrian bridges or culverts due to their poor bending resistance. Stone arch bridges not only have glorious achievements in history, but also have high reference value in modern bridge architecture.
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The maintenance of stone arch bridges is simple, the appearance is beautiful, and materials can be sourced locally. Especially in some areas, the supply of stone materials is convenient, the labor cost is low, and the construction of stone arch bridges with small spans is relatively economical. However, the stone arch bridge is a solid heavy structure with limited spanning capacity, and the mining, processing, and masonry of the arch stones are not easily mechanized, requiring a large amount of labor and a long construction period, which limits its development to a certain extent.
The arch ring is the main load-bearing structure of a stone arch bridge. A solid belly arch bridge refers to a structure on which stone side walls are built and filled between the walls; Hollow arch bridge refers to the construction of small arches on the arch ring. Arches are usually built on rigid arches using arch stones; There are also stone blocks or curved slabs used instead of arch stones. The masonry surface inside the arch ring should be perpendicular to the inner arc of the arch ring, and there should be staggered joints between adjacent rows of arch stones. For stone arch bridges with a span greater than 10 meters, the arch ring must be symmetrically constructed using the segmented method; The position of the segments and the order of masonry should be based on the standard of balanced stress on the arch and minimal deformation. Large span stone arch bridges can be constructed in layers due to the thick arch ring; First build the bottom layer, and then build the upper layer after the dragon and arch are combined to bear the weight. Each layer can be constructed using a combination of segmented and reserved gaps.