Interactive Software for Behaviour Mapping of Masonry Arches

As a common component of masonry structures, arches are an important part of the masonry architectural heritage, meanwhile still serving as infrastructures such as bridges and culverts. The behavior testing and structural health monitoring of masonry arches require effective measurement methods. There have been a lot of testing methods applied regarding this subject, among which the vision-based non-destructive methods are very appealing. However, as the demands for measuring accuracy and range increase, the labor and economic costs will increase to uneconomical levels. A novel, cheap, and fast strategy focused directly on the mechanical failure of masonry arches was developed, it is based on homography and does not require a high-precision camera. The main purpose of this article is to introduce a MATLAB® based graphical user interface, for presenting the huge amount of data gained through the measurement of repeated collapses of a scale model of arch subjected to springing displacement. These educational experimental cases integrated into the GUI provide the possibility to better understand the failure mechanism of the dry-stone arch under foot displacement, as well to easily identify the occurrence of mechanical joints and determine the value of deformations. This graphical user interface can be adapted for different arch configurations, as well for further real-time monitoring.