Comments on Philippe de la Hire's Memoir on Arch Abutment Design (1712)

Abstract

Philipe de la Hire’s 1712 memoire is an often-referenced study on the design of an abutment to support a circular arch.  It has been cited as the first example of limit analysis of an arch.  Also, a graphical construction designed to solve for the abutment width was suspected of containing an error, which may have impeded the adoption of the methods of static analysis.  These two topics are taken up in the accompanying report where (1) it is argued that there is no direct evidence in de la Hire’s writing that he was thinking of any collapse mechanism that involved the entire structure, and (2) the suspected graphical error is confirmed and assessed.  In addition, the problem of determining abutment width is re-solved with friction included in the arch joints to assess the complexity added to the solution process and the effect on de la Hire’s result. 

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