Simplified Algorithms for Continuous Welded Rail Design on Large-Span Steel Truss Cable-Stayed Bridge

Abstract

Large-span steel truss cable-stayed bridge largely appears in railway bridge construction in China, so it is very essential to find a method to help engineers and designers carry on calculation of continuous welded rail (CWR) on this kind of bridge easily. Two simplified models and algorithms were proposed, and a software BCWR was built up based on the algorithms. To validate algorithms above are feasible, take the truss steel cable-stayed bridge of “5×32m simple beam +(36+96+228+96+36)m steel truss beam+5×32m simple beam” for example, a bridge-rail interaction plane model was established, which could embody all structural characteristics, such as steel truss, stay cable, main tower. Rail additional longitudinal forces and the bridge-rail displacements obtained based on finite element method (FEM), and those obtained based on two algorithms above were compared mathematically. Results show that distribution regularities of the additional forces and the bridge-rail displacements obtained by FEM are the same as those obtained by the algorithms. So these two simplified algorithms can both satisfy the CWR design on this kind of bridge, and are very efficient and effective.