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Structural engineering can respond, simultaneously, to aesthetic, functional and economic requirements for the construction of arch bridges, according to the thesis of Juan Manuel García Guerrero at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT), which has developed a catalog of forms through classic strategies of evolved design and a proper method of weight optimization.

"It is time to vindicate the resistant orthodoxy for the generation of new forms that meet criteria of utility, safety and material savings," says the director of the thesis, Juan José Jorquera.

"In a context of demand for originality and where references are increasingly relative, urban bridges are required to have an iconic character that often leads to absurd designs," he laments.

"This thesis brings common sense," he adds.

The research focuses on symmetric arc-space bridges, loaded off the arc plane.

Examples of these are the Jorge Manrique gangway in the city of Murcia or the Miguel Navarro de Lorca footbridge, hometown of the new doctor by the UPCT, formed in the School of Engineering of Roads, Channels and Ports and Mining Engineering.

The thesis shows that the space arch bridge is a source of solutions for problems such as buckling or excessive deformation of classic arch bridges, as well as a highly efficient typology that is not at odds with aesthetics and originality.

"We have obtained many innovative forms that have not yet been built", highlights García Guerrero, who has developed his thesis with a contract for the Training of Research Staff (FPI) of the Seneca Foundation, Agency of Science and Technology of the CARM.

There are hardly any theoretical studies on space arch bridges.

The thesis follows the line of research initiated by Jorquera in 2007, led by the prestigious bridge designer Javier Manterola.

Another member of the research group NEST (New Structural Typologies) of the UPCT is currently carrying out a new doctoral thesis related also to this field.

Source: UPCT