Conceptual design of light bascule bridge

Abstract

This paper proposed a conceptual design of bascule bridge, which is a new kind of movable bridge with an aim of reducing the weight of superstructure. Compared with the traditional bascule bridge, the light bascule bridge chooses cable-stayed bridge with inclined pylon as its superstructure; therefore, the functions of balance-weight and structure will fuse into one. Otherwise, it adopts moving counterweight to adjust its center of gravity (CG) to open or close the bridge. In order to lighten the superstructure, it uses contact springs to auxiliary retract, and intelligent prestressing system (IPS) to control the main girder's deformation. Simultaneously the vibration control scheme of structure is discussed. Starting from establishing the mechanical model of bridge, this article tries to analyze the conditions that the design parameters of structure and attachments should satisfy to. After the design procedure was presented, an example was also adopted to explain the primary design process of this kind bridge.