Experimental and numerical study of steel-to-concrete joint section in hybrid cable-stayed bridges

Abstract

In a hybrid cable-stayed bridge, the steel-to-concrete combination segment connecting the steel box girder and the concrete girder together plays an important role in force transmission, thus it is the most critical part of the whole structure. Taking a proposed hybrid cable-stayed bridge project in China as a prototype, six full-scaled specimens of local joint section distracted from the combination segment were designed, in which the structural behaviour of different constructional details are carefully investigated. The load-slip curves, stress distribution and failure modes were obtained. Furthermore, finite element models of the joint section were established and validated by the tests. On this basis, the force transfer mechanism was analysed, the load bearing ratio of different structures in the joint section was obtained, and the influence of steel stiffener length was studied. As a result, the findings from the tests and analysis are considered to be of great significance for the design and construction of steel-to-concrete combination segment in hybrid cable-stayed bridges.