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There are numerous methods available on date for the structural assessment of masonry archbridges. Each of these methods has been developed, at different times and places, having its ownlimitations of use and none of these is a commonly putative method. Among the problems ofdevelopment of such an approach, the problem of selection of a suitable failure criterion for theprediction of the collapse load is critical. Particularly for arch bridges, involving moments, normalthrust and tangential thrust, the interaction of the axial force and the moments play a vital role in thechoosing failure criteria. In view of this, different axial force and moment interactions are reviewed,along with the implementation of the same through a developed stiffness approach based onmechanism method for the prediction of load carrying capacity of the masonry arch bridges. Theapplication of the method has been demonstrated on the bridges tested in field, and the loadcarrying capacity has been compared.

modelling