Inelastic Out-of-plane Design of Parabolic Arches

In this paper, improved out-of-plane design of parabolic arches was proposed based on the current design code. The arches resist general loading by a combination of axial compression and bending actions, and the interaction formula between two extreme cases of axial and bending actions is generally used for the design. Firstly, the out-of-plane buckling strength of arches in a pure axial compression and a pure bending were studied. Then, out-of-plane design of parabolic aches under general transverse loading was investigated. From the results, it can be found that the proposed design equations provided good prediction of out-of-plane strength for parabolic arches which satisfy the thresholds for deep arches, while proposed design equations overestimated the buckling load of shallow arches.