A comprehensive performance evaluation methodology for sea-crossing cable-stayed bridges under wind and wave loads

Abstract

This study proposes a probabilistic performance evaluation framework for sea-crossing cable-stayed bridges (SCBs) subjected to wind and wave excitations with the incorporation of wind speed and direction, bridge orientation, wind-wave correlation and parameter uncertainties. Both the bridge serviceability and safety are taken into account in the performance assessment. The fragility analysis of the SCB under wind and wave loads is conducted using the wind-wave correlation model constructed based on field data. The actual damage probability of a local SCB is computed by combining the fragilities of bridge under different wind incidence angles with the copula-based joint probability distribution (JPD) of wind speed and direction, which is developed using the wind field data recorded in Lianyungang city of China from 1971 to 2020. The results show that under the defined wind incidence angle of 0°, the exemplar SCB suffers the highest fragility. Moreover, with the data-based occurrence probability model of wind and wave hazards, the damage probabilities under all possible wind speeds and directions are computed; then the optimal and most unfavorable orientations of the SCB are obtained. This investigation provides a comprehensive and practical method for the performance evaluation and design optimization of SCBs under wind and wave loads with long-term recorded hazard data at the local site.