Abstract
This paper conducts the experimental and simulative analysis of stressing state characteristics for parabolic concretefilled steel tubular (CFST) arches undergoing vertical loads. The measured stain data is firstly modeled as the generalized strain energy density (GSED) to describe structural stressing state mode. Then, the normalized GSED sum Ej,norm at each load Fj derives the Ej,norm-Fj curve reflecting the stressing state characteristics of CFST arches. Furthermore, the Mann-Kendall criterion is adopted to detect the stressing state change of the CFST arch during its load-bearing process, leading to the revelation of a vital stressing state leap characteristic according to the natural law from quantitative change to qualitative change of a system. The revealed qualitative leap characteristic updates the existing definition of the CFST arch’s failure load. Finally, the accurate formula is derived to predict the failure/ultimate loads of CFST arches. Besides, a method of numerical shape function is proposed to expand the limited strain data for further analysis of the stressing state submodes. The GSED-based analysis of structural stressing state opens a new way to recognize the unseen working behavior characteristics of arch structures and the updated failure load could contribute to the improvement on the structural design codes.
Highlights
The excellent load-bearing performance and architectural merit of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arch bridges promote their wide engineering application in recent years (Chen, 2007; Xiao, Cai, Chen, & Xu, 2012)
The finite element (FE) analysis is conducted to verify the stressing state characteristics revealed from the experimental investigation and provides the data to fit the formula for predicting the updated failure loads of CFST arches
The validated FE model is used to calculate the responses of the CFST arches under the conditions of different rise-span ratios (f/L = 0.2–0.4), slenderness ratio (l = 60–160), steel ratio, strength of steel or concrete; correspondingly, the failure loads or ultimate loads are obtained in more than 300 cases in total
Summary
The excellent load-bearing performance and architectural merit of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arch bridges promote their wide engineering application in recent years (Chen, 2007; Xiao, Cai, Chen, & Xu, 2012). The conventional methods for analyzing CFST arches mainly focus on the ultimate load-bearing state with considerable random property, so the formulas derived from the theoretical and experimental analysis cannot accurately calculate the failure loads of CFST arches. The problems mentioned above indicate that some unseen behavior characteristics of CFST arches have not been revealed from both experimental and simulative data This implies that the new theories and methods should be developed to model structural working state so as to disclose the unseen structural working characteristics. The finite element (FE) analysis is conducted to verify the stressing state characteristics revealed from the experimental investigation and provides the data to fit the formula for predicting the updated failure loads of CFST arches. It is verified that the fitted formula can accurately predict the updated failure loads of the arches and be analogously applied to calculate the ultimate loads, providing a reference to the improvement on the existing design code
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