Long-span Steel Arch Bridge Research Articles

Analysis of Traveling Wave and Combined Site Effect of Long-Span Upper-Bearing Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Arch Bridge

In order to study the traveling wave effect and combined site effect of long-span steel tube concrete-filled arch bridge, a 400-m span bridge of the same type is taken as an example, and a large-mass time-history analysis method with multipoint input of recorded seismic waves is used. A total of 11 kinds of traveling wave excitations and 9 kinds of combined site excitations under 4 types of typical sites are carried out to calculate the structural response, and the chord axial force ratio and displacement changes are compared and analyzed. The results show that the long-span arch bridge also has nonuniform seismic excitation conditions in the lateral and vertical directions, and the spatial effect of the structural response is significant; under the traveling wave excitation, the change of the axial force ratio of the chord has a certain periodicity, and it is not the larger the axial force ratio is, the larger the axial force ratio is; the X direction has a significant influence, the maximum axial force ratio of the vault under the design condition is 6.26, and the changes in the Y and Z directions are relatively gentle, but there are still nearly two times the working condition; after the same amplitude modulation of different recorded waves, under the uniform excitation, the axial force is similar, but the displacement is quite different; under the unidirectional traveling wave excitation, the displacement in the X and Z directions shows an accelerating and increasing trend toward the vault. When it is relatively consistent under the unidirectional combined site excitation, and the axial force ratio changes under small and then increases, the L/4–3L/8 segment has a significant impact; the axial force ratio changes are the combined site excitation in different directions are spatially random; three under the combined site excitation. The axial force ratio in the orthogonal direction changes greatly. When the hard field is transformed into the soft field, the axial force ratio decreases, and the displacement increases continuously.

Wind Resistance Analysis for H-shaped Hanger of Long-span Steel Arch Bridge

This paper presents the development history of arch bridge and the structural system of long-span steel arch bridge as well as the damage and load types of wind-induced vibration. It also analyses the characteristics of wind load on an arch bridge especially the half-through or through-type steel arch bridges, the effect of wind-induced vibration on H-shaped hangers. Finally, it introduces the measures to reduce wind-induced effect on long-span steel arch bridges with H-shaped hangers.

Arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion method for uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis in structural dynamics

Uncertainty quantification (UQ) and global sensitivity analysis (GSA) of dynamic characteristics of complex systems subjected to uncertainty are jointly investigated in this paper. An efficient approach based on arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion (aPCE) is presented for analytical, unified implementation of UQ and GSA in structural dynamics. For UQ of dynamic characteristics, statistical moments and probability distributions of dynamic characteristics are analytically derived. Specifically, the aPCE is used to analytically calculate the statistical moments, and then the maximum entropy principle (MEP) is adopted to derive the closed-form expressions of the probability distributions using the obtained statistical moments. As an extension of UQ, GSA, which aims to assess the quantitative contributions of different structural parameters to the resultant variations of dynamic characteristics, is also analytically achieved by simply post-processing the aPCE coefficients. The present aPCE UQ and GSA method is highly computationally efficient for large-scale, complex structures, and it is also generally applicable independent of parameter distributions. The proposed aPCE-based approach for UQ and GSA is validated through a numerical truss bridge by the brute-force Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), and then is applied to a long-span steel arch bridge.

Experimental Study on the Dynamic Performance of Long-Span Steel Arch Bridge in Passenger Dedicated Line

By the experiment on dynamic performance of long-span steel arch bridge, the natural frequency and dynamic responses of the 140m steel box-section tied arch bridge over the Ting Si River Bridge in the Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line are tested. the tested results of the bridge dynamic responses show that the bridge structure can meet the security requirements when CRH2 EMU runs on it in the speed of 250 to 350km/h.the lateral and vertical stiffness are larger, the vertical and lateral natural frequencies and the other dynamic performances of the bridge can meet the requirements of the relevant norms, When the CRH2 EMU runs across the steel box-section arch bridge in different speeds

Dongping Channel Bridge: Long-Span Steel Arch Bridge in High-Speed Railway, China

Dongping Channel Bridge, a significant project of the new Guangzhou station, is the longest arch bridge on the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway. A half-through continuous steel-truss arch bridge was chosen, with a total length of 442 m and deck width of 28 m. Several highlighted features in this bridge design are new three main trusses system, integrated structural joint, orthotropic-plate ballast deck, integral pile caps, and drilled piles. Cantilever erection method was applied in the construction, assisted by temporary piers in the side span and auxiliary cables attached to towers on the main piers. In this paper, the structural system, design features, as well as construction were introduced, and structural behavior, ultimate load-carrying capacity, joint analysis, and seismic behavior of this long-span bridge were analyzed and investigated.

Study on the Vehicle-Bridge Coupling Vibration of Steel Arch Bridge

The modal analysis and the calculation of dynamic response of the Fenghua Bridge, a new type of long-span steel arch bridge, are carried out using the finite element software ANSYS. Through the on-site testing, the vibration frequency and the change of dynamic displacement response with different weight and speeds are obtained by the DASP data processing software. It is found that the field test results are in consistent with the theoretical results. Firstly, the natural vibration period is 2 ~ 3 times longer than the other ordinary arch bridges, which indicate the bridge structure is stable; Secondly, the dynamic displacement of bridge deck changes in the same direction with weight, while in the opposite direction with speed, and the maximum appears on the midpoint of the middle span; Finally, the maximum dynamic displacement is 11.41mm, which doesn’t exceed the allowable value. So it can be concluded that the bridge is safe under the vehicle-bridge coupling vibration.

Mitigating Epistemic Uncertainty in Structural Identification: Case Study for a Long-Span Steel Arch Bridge

Characterization of constructed civil-engineering systems through structural identification (St-Id) has gained increasing attention in recent years due to its potential to enable more effective infrastructure asset management and performance-based engineering. Although there have been recent advances that mitigate the challenges posed by aleatory (random) uncertainty, there are many remaining challenges associated with epistemic (bias) uncertainty that often have a more critical impact on the reliability of St-Id (especially with applications to constructed systems). The objective of this paper is to illustrate various sources of epistemic uncertainty and describe mitigation approaches by detailing the St-Id of a long-span steel arch bridge. This application includes a priori modeling, ambient vibration monitoring, data processing, feature extraction, and finite-element (FE) model correlation. Following a description of the St-Id, the impact of various modeling uncertainties on the calibrated FE model is ...

Analysis of Data Quality for Ambient Vibration Testing of the Henry Hudson Bridge

The quality of test data is an important consideration in conducting field experiments on civil infrastructure. In addition to possible errors due to the experimental setup, the uncertainties due to incomplete knowledge of a structure's behavior and its interactions with the natural environment greatly affect the reliability of the final results. This study discusses the uncertainty related to ambient vibration testing of a long-span steel arch bridge. The consistency of the identified parameters is examined through statistical analyses, and the effects of bandwidth and stationarity on the identified parameters are discussed.

Wind-induced load capacity analysis and parametric study of a long-span steel arch bridge under construction

Wind-induced instability of long-span steel arch bridges is a serious engineering concern, particularly during construction. Using the Lupu Bridge with a main span length of 550-m as an example, this paper investigates the wind-induced load capacity of a long-span steel arch bridge during two construction stages I and II. Construction stage I is a maximum-cantilevered system before closure of main arch ribs. Construction stage II is a system in which all parts of the bridge have been completed except the stiffening girder of the main span. Three components of wind loads acting on both steel girder and arch ribs are considered in the analysis. The results show that the arch bridge at construction stage II is more susceptible to wind-induced instability than at construction stage I. Finally, various significant parameters affecting wind-induced load capacity are discussed.

Ultimate behavior of long-span steel arch bridges

Because of the increasing span of arch bridges, ultimate capacity analysis recently becomes more focused both on design and construction. This paper investigates the static and ultimate behavior of a long-span steel arch bridge up to failure and evaluates the overall safety of the bridge. The example bridge is a long-span steel arch bridge with a 550 m-long central span under construction in Shanghai, China. This will be the longest central span of any arch bridge in the world. Ultimate behavior of the example bridge is investigated using three methods. Comparisons of the accuracy and reliability of the three methods are given. The effects of material nonlinearity of individual bridge element and distribution pattern of live load and initial lateral deflection of main arch ribs as well as yield stresses of material and changes of temperature on the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the bridge have been studied. The results show that the distribution pattern of live load and yield stresses of material have important effects on bridge behavior. The critical load analyses based on the linear buckling method and geometrically nonlinear buckling method considerably overestimate the load-carrying capacity of the bridge. The ultimate load-carrying capacity analysis and overall safety evaluation of a long-span steel arch bridge should be based on the geometrically and materially nonlinear buckling method. Finally, the in-plane failure mechanism of long-span steel arch bridges is explained by tracing the spread of plastic zones.

Stability and load-carrying capacity of three-dimensional long-span steel arch bridges

The behavior of several models of three-dimensional long-span steel arch bridges is investigated for evaluating the effects of various design parameters on both the strength and stability of these special structures. The major concerns in the design of a long-span steel arch bridge, from the structural safety point of view, are the yield and buckling failures. Different design parameters may affect the failure load for either type of failure in various ways. This study investigates how changes in certain design parameters would affect the behavior of steel arch bridges, which could lead to an optimum design of this type of bridge structures. The effects of the plate girder stiffness and arch bracing stiffness as well as the rise-to-span ratio and inclination of the arches towards each other are examined in this study. Both critical buckling load and the load-carrying capacity of each design alternative are investigated using the finite element method. All design alternatives are based on the latest AASHTO code for highway bridge design. It is concluded from this study that the inclined arch bridge using the maximum practical rise-to-span ratio (which is about 0.25) is the most favorable design. In addition, the increase in the stiffness of the plate girder does not reduce the bending moments in the arch ribs. However, providing a lateral bracing system with sufficient stiffness greatly reduces the out-of-plane bending moments and increases the load-carrying capacity and the critical buckling load of a long-span arch bridge.