Structural analysis of the Paderno d'Adda Bridge (Italy, 1889)

The Paderno d'Adda Bridge is a marvellous riveted iron viaduct with a doubly-built-in parabolic arch that crosses the river Adda near Milano, between Paderno d'Adda (Lecco province) and Calusco d'Adda (Bergamo province), in Lombardia, northern Italy. It was completed in 1889 by the "Società Nazionale delle Officine di Savigliano" (SNOS). In this work, following a previous contribution to the last SAHC08 Conference (Ferrari and Rizzi 2008), a complete FEM model of the bridge is presented, in the attempt of querying the performance of the structure at design stage. Several static loading conditions have been carried-out in the elastic range and results have been compared to those available in the original SNOS Report (1889), with remarkable correspondence.