Day course: Masonry bridge assessment with Archie-M
Delivered by Hamish Harvey, this in-person day course gives a good grounding for engineers involved in the assessment of masonry bridges.
Programme
The following topics will be covered.
- Introduction: basic terms; some history; and the part “analysis” plays in assessment
- Construction: methods and typical internal features
- Geometry: standard shapes; estimating design geometry; the effect of skew
- Inspection for assessment: effective measurement; external evidence of internal features
- Intrusive investigation
- Masonry theory and what Archie-M is doing
- Live loads: the effective strip; distribution in fill - CS454/“025” rules and what really happens; standard and special loads
- Assessment: factors; what is a pass; handling uncertainty
- Multi-span bridges: the standard model and real behaviour
- Service load behaviour and damage
An introduction to the features and use of Archie-M is woven through the course. Questions are welcome at any point, and time is built in to allow discussion.
Pre-requisites
No prior knowledge of masonry bridge construction and behaviour is assumed. The section on masonry theory builds on basic engineering statics.
Delegates may wish to bring a laptop with access to a copy of Archie-M, and will benefit from exploring Archie-M a little in advance. Trial licences can be arranged if needed, and we can temporarily increase the number of concurrent users allowed for network installations.
It is recommended that delegates familiarise with the relevant sections of the assessment standards in advance.
Feedback
This course was brilliant. I've been working on arches for years, a regular Archie-M user for the structural assessment of masonry bridges, and also doing graphical thrust long-hand for buildings. This course cleared up so many niggling "how does that work" questions (masonry isn't a taught engineering discipline at university any more), and deepened my understanding of how Archie thinks. The course starts with a firm theoretical background with first principles, which I really need to make the later stuff click. The focus is primarily for bridges, but totally applicable to arches in buildings - who knew we would get on to Wren's design of the dome at St Paul's. Hamish cleared up in one sentence a longstanding niggle that I couldn't wrap my head around with Heyman's assessment of the dome. Dealing with the nitty-gritty of defining bespoke loadcases, fiddling around with passive response, introducing the effects of damage, all hugely confidence-building for my line of work.
Wish I'd booked on years ago, and will definitely be back for a refresher soon. Highly recommend to anyone working with arches.
- David Wiggins, Clach Conservation
I found the training to be one of the best I have been on. It was extremely informative and the format and opportunity to ask questions to Hamish was really excellent. The content covering both background on the theory, history and construction of arch bridges combined with the practical demonstration of Archie-M and assessments was brilliant. Hopefully we will make this training a regular thing every few years to teach new people about this topic!
- Senior Engineer, Warwickshire County Council
Cost and booking
Cost £350 per delegate ex VAT. Courses will run subject to a minimum number of confirmed delegates to ensure viability. Numbers will be limited to around 15 per course to allow interaction.
Booking and attendance on training courses is covered by our training terms. Please review these, they are short.
Confirmed dates and venues are listed on the events page; go to the page for a specific event for booking.
Other venues and in-house options
If you would like us to run the course in a location more convenient for you, get in touch with details and expected numbers of attendees.
In-house courses can also be arranged. These can provide more opportunity to discuss specific issues and concerns.
Please email sales@obvis.com to discuss pricing and any particular needs.