Introduction. The paper deals with the calculation of wooden arches taking into account the nonlinear relationship between stresses and instantaneous deformations, as well as creep and geometric nonlinearity, are considered. The analysis is based on the integral equation of the viscoelastoplastic hereditary aging model, originally proposed by A.G. Tamrazyan [1] to describe the nonlinear creep of concrete.

Materials and Methods. The creep measure is taken in accordance with the work of I.E. Prokopovich and V.A. Zedgenidze [2] as a sum of exponential functions. The transition from the integral form of the creep law to the differential form is shown. The relationship between stresses and instantaneous deformations for wood under compression is determined from the Gerstner formula, and elastic work is assumed under tension. The solution is carried out using the finite element method in combination with the Newton-Raphson method and the Euler method according to the scheme that involves a stepwise increase in the load with correction of the stiffness matrix taking into account the change in the coordinates of the nodes with the sequential calculation of additional displacements of the nodes, which are due to the residual forces. The proposed approach for increasing the accuracy of determination of creep deformations at each step provides using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method instead of the Euler method.

Results. Based on the Lagrange variational principle, expressions are obtained for the stiffness matrix and the vector of additional dummy loads due to creep. The method developed by the authors is implemented in the form of a program in the MATLAB environment. Calculation examples are given for parabolic arches simply supported at the ends without an intermediate hinge and with an intermediate hinge in the middle of the span under the action of a uniformly distributed load. The results obtained are compared in the viscoelastic and viscoelastic formulation. The reliability of the results is validated through the calculation in the elastic formulation in the ANSYS software package.

Discussion and Conclusions. For the arches considered, it is found that even with a load close to the instant critical, the growth of time travel is limited. Thus, the nature of their work under creep conditions differs drastically from the nature of the deformation of compressed rods.