The evaluation of the safety of the bridge Mosca in Turin, Italy

In this paper the authors have intended to study the problem of the safety of the arch-bridge with single span of 45 meters, built with granite stones by engineer Charles Bernard Mosca between 1823 and 1830 in Turin (Italy). The authors have already dealt with the evaluation of the collapse multiplier for "ideals" masonry bridges subject to increasing vertical loads, applied both inside and out of the mean plane of the arch, making use of a calculation procedure described in a previous paper and already utilized for different types of masonry structures discretized into rigid blocks, subjected to increasing horizontal or vertical loads. This numerical method uses the Static Theorem of Limit Analysis through an optimization process constrained to respect the conditions of equilibrium of the blocks and the domains of crisis on the interfaces between the blocks, under the hypothesis of limited compressive force, inability to carry tension and sliding with dilatancy.