Spatially Curved Cable-Supported Bridge Structures

Abstract

The article is focused on the design of spatially curved cable - supported footbridges, which represent a simple and elegant solution for bridging longer spans. It can be used independently or in a combination with other structural arrangements, e.g. with the arch structures.To verify the behavior of the structure, a several testing models were created. At first only simple, plan – straight models were created so the results could be checked by manual calculations. Latter, the more complex, curved models were tested. All models were designed and analyzed with the Ansys software using geometrically nonlinear calculations. The analysis consisted in the searching for ideal geometry of the supporting cable, cross section geometry of the bridge deck and other parameters, which are necessary to find a correct initial state of the structure. The main criterion for finding the initial state was a demand of minimal deformations in the strut - supporting nodes, which leads to the minimal redistribution of the internal forces during the design lifetime. The result of the paper is a detailed analysis of the construction’s behavior. The main emphasis is on methodology of search for the initial state. Further, the buckling analysis of the struts and cable were performed and it’s resistance to buckling was determined using various live load configurations.