Arches
Arches also have a neutral axis. If they are made of stone; stone is an inelastic medium, and has little strength in tension. Therefore as the loading on the arch changes the neutral axis moves- if the neutral axis leaves the stonework, then the arch will fail.
This theory (also known as the thrust line method) was proposed by Thomas Young and developed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Read more about this topic: Neutral Axis
Famous quotes containing the word arches:
“No annual training or muster of soldiery, no celebration with its scarfs and banners, could import into the town a hundredth part of the annual splendor of our October. We have only to set the trees, or let them stand, and Nature will find the colored drapery,—flags of all her nations, some of whose private signals hardly the botanist can read,—while we walk under the triumphal arches of the elms.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Francis Thompson (1859–1907)