A Stability Study of the Longest Steel Truss Deck Cable-stayed Bridge during Construction

Abstract

For long-span cable-stayed bridges, the stability performance during construction is vital from the point view of structural safety. This paper presents an extensive study of stability performance during construction for the world longest steel truss deck cable-stayed bridge-Yachihe Bridge. Based on the finite element analysis, the Linear Elastic Stability (LES), Nonlinear Elastic Stability (NLES) and Nonlinear Inelastic Stability (NLIES) of the bridge have been investigated to identify the effects of geometry nonlinearity and material nonlinearity on the structural stability performance. In addition, the influences of temperature variations and static lateral winds on stability performance are also focused. The results show that: 1) Under design ambient temperature, the corresponding design of steel truss deck yields the minimum stability coefficients of LES, NLES and NLIES by 5.72, 4.64 and 2.96, respectively, corresponding to the completion of superimposed dead loads; 2) both the geometry nonlinearity and material nonlinearity have been identified to make negative effects on the stability performance and the material nonlinearity will reduce the structural stability coefficient largely; 3) during construction, the rise and drop in temperature will increase and decrease the stability coefficients, respectively. NLIES is the most sensitive one to variations of temperature; and 4) the lateral static winds slightly reduce the stability coefficients of LES, NLES and NLIES.