A Review of the Key Points in the Design of Small-Radius Curved Ramp Bridges

This article explores the fundamentals of small-radius curved ramp bridges.It covers the selection of box girder spans,support methods,and forms,along with design optimization techniques for this type of bridge structure.The purpose of this paper is to provide robust support for enhancing the design quality of these bridges and ensuring their efficacy in real-world applications.

Regularity classification and corresponding analysis method requirements of horizontally curved bridges with unequal pier heights

The seismic behavior of horizontally curved bridges,particularly with unequal height piers,is more complicated than that of straight bridges due to their geometric properties.In this study,the seismic responses of several horizontally curved single-column-bent viaducts with various degrees of curvature and different pier heights have been investigated,employing three different analysis approaches:namely,modal pushover analysis,uniform load method,and nonlinear time history analysis.Considering the investigated bridge configurations and utilizing the most common regularity indices,the results indicate that viaducts with 45-degree and 90-degree deck subtended angles can be categorized as regular and moderately irregular,respectively,while the bridges with 180-degree deck subtended angle are found to be highly irregular.Furthermore,the viaducts whose pier heights are asymmetric may be considered as irregular for almost all ranges of the deck subtended angles.The effects of higher transverse and longitudinal modes are discussed and the minimum analysis requirements are identified to assess the seismic response of such bridge configurations for design purposes.Although the Regularity Indices used here are useful tools to distinguish between regular and irregular bridges,further studies are needed to improve their reliability.

Dynamic Characteristics of a Curved Cable-stayed Bridge:Operational Modal Testing and FE Modeling

This paper summarizes the analytical and experimental dynamic analyses carried out to assess the actual dynamic behaviour of a curved cable-stayed bridge,recently erected in the commercial harbour of Porto Marghera ( Venice,Italy). Ambient vibration tests were carried out to determine the dynamic characteristics of the bridge and more than 20 modes were identified in the frequency range 0～10Hz. In the theoretical study,a 3D FE model of the bridge was developed using an integrated CAD-FEA approach; subsequently,the information obtained from the field tests,combined with simple manual tuning,provided a linear elastic model,accurately fitting the modal parameters of the bridge in its present condition.

Dynamic Response of Sea-Crossing Rail-cum-Road Cable-Stayed Bridge Influenced by Random Wind–Wave–Undercurrent Coupling

Sea-crossing bridges are affected by random wind–wave–undercurrent coupling loads, due to the complex marine environment. The dynamic response of long-span Rail-cum-Road cable-stayed bridges is particularly severe under their influence, potentially leading to safety problems. In this paper, a fluid–structure separation solution method is implemented using Ansys–Midas co-simulation, in order to solve the above issues effectively while using less computational resources. The feasibility of the method is verified by comparing the tower top displacement response with relevant experimental data. From time and frequency domain perspectives, the displacement and acceleration responses of the sea-crossing Rail-cum-Road cable-stayed bridge influenced by wave-only, wind–wave, and wind–wave–undercurrent coupling are comparatively studied. The results indicate that the displacement and acceleration of the front bearing platform top are more significant than those of the rear bearing platform. The dominant frequency under wind–wave–undercurrent coupling is close to the natural vibration frequencies of several bridge modes,such that wind–wave–undercurrent coupling is more likely to cause a resonance effect in the bridge. Compared with the wave-only and wind–wave coupling, wind–wave–undercurrent coupling can excite bridges to produce larger displacement and acceleration responses: at the middle of the main girder span, compared with the wave-only case, the maximum displacement in the transverse bridge direction increases by 23.58% and 46.95% in the wind–wave and wind–wave–undercurrent coupling cases, respectively;at the tower top, the variation in the amplitude of the displacement and acceleration responses of wind–wave and wind–wave–undercurrent coupling are larger than those in the wave-only case, where the acceleration change amplitude of the tower top is from-0.93 to 0.86 m/s^(2) in the waveonly case, from-2.2 to 2.1 m/s^(2) under wind–wave coupling effect, and from-2.6 to 2.65 m/s^(2) under wind–wave–undercurrent coupling effect, indicating that the tower top is mainly affected by wind loads, but wave and undercurrent loads cannot be neglected.

Process Monitoring and Terminal Verification of Cable-Stayed Bridges with Corrugated Steel Webs under Contruction

In this paper,the construction process of a cable-stayed bridge with corrugated steel webs was monitored.Moreover,the end performance of the bridge was verified by load test.Owing to the consideration of the bridge structure safety,it is necessary to monitor the main girder deflection,stress,construction error and safety state during construction.Furthermore,to verify whether the bridge can meet the design requirements,the static and dynamic load tests are carried out after the completion of the bridge.The results of construction monitoring show that the stress state of the structure during construction is basically consistent with the theoretical calculation and design requirements,and both meet the design and specification requirements.The final measured stress state of the structure is within the allowable range of the cable-stayed bridge,and the stress state of the structure is normal and meets the specification requirements.The results of load tests show that the measured deflection values of the mid-span section of the main girder are less than the theoretical calculation values.The maximum deflection of the girder is−20.90 mm,which is less than−22.00 mm of the theoretical value,indicating that the girder has sufficient structural stiffness.The maximum impact coefficient under dynamic load test is 1.08,which is greater than 1.05 of theoretical value,indicating that the impact effect of heavy-duty truck on this type of bridge is larger.This study can provide important reference value for construction and maintenance of similar corrugated steel web cable-stayed bridges.

Fragility curves of concrete bridges retrofitted by column jacketing

The Northridge earthquake inflicted various levels of damage upon a large number of Caltrans' bridges not retrofitted by column jacketing.In this respect,this study represents results of fragility curve development for two (2) sample bridges typical in southern California,strengthened for seismic retrofit by means of steel jacketing of bridge columns.Monte Carlo simulation is performed to study nonlinear dynamic responses of the bridges before and after column retrofit.Fragility curves in this study are represented by lognormal distribution functions with two parameters and developed as a function of PGA.The sixty (60) ground acceleration time histories for the Los Angeles area developed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) SAC (SEAOC-ATC CUREe) steel project are used for the dynamic analysis of the bridges. The improvement in the fragility with steel jacketing is quantified by comparing fragility curves of the bridge before and after column retrofit.In this first attempt to formulate the problem of fragility enhancement,the quantification is made by comparing the median values of the fragility curves before and after the retrofit.Under the hypothesis that this quantification also applies to empirical fragility curves developed on the basis of Northridge earthquake damage,the enhanced version of the empirical curves is developed for the ensuing analysis to determine the enhancement of transportation network performance due to the retrofit.

Simplified Method and Influence Factors of Vibration Characteristics of Isolated Curved Girder Bridge

The isolated curved girder bridge's vibration characteristics play a major part in the seismic responses of structures and anti-seismic properties.A clear analytic relationship between design parameters and the system's vibration characteristics could be established by its simplified dynamic analysis model,making it convenient for providing a reference to the optimization of design and safety analysis.A double-mass six-degree-of-freedom model for curved girder bridges with isolation bearings installed at the top of the bridge piers is built and a simplified analysis method for the vibration characteristics of the system is provided.Combined with the Matlab programming,the influences of radius of curvature,central angle,bridge deck width and damping ratio of the isolation layer and circular frequency of the isolation layer of isolated curved girder bridges on the pseudo-undamped natural circular frequency(called pseudo-frequency for short)and system damping ratio are systematically analyzed,and the sensitivity of vibration characteristics of isolated curved girder bridges is studied.The results show that the vibration characteristics of isolated curved girder bridges can be reflected well with this simplified model and calculation method.The pseudo-frequency of curved girder and system damping ratios increases with the increase of the isolation layer.The third-order vibration characteristic is more sensitive to the parameters of a curved girder,and the first-order vibration characteristic is sensitive to both central angle and radius of curvature to some extent while insensitive to the width of the bridge deck.Furthermore,the second-order vibration characteristic is not sensitive to the parameters of a curved girder.

A Method for Elastic Shear Buckling Calculation of Curved Bridge Webs

Curved composite bridges and curved steel bridges have already been constructed around the world;however, the calculation for shear buckling of curved bridge webs generally uses the equations for straight bridge webs or just introduces a modification factor for bridge design. In this paper, the curved bridge web is equivalent to an isotropic cylindrical flat shell, and the double triangular series satisfying four-edge simply supported boundaries are used as the displacement function of the shell. Then by means of the Galerkin method, the analytical formula for elastic shear buckling stress of curved bridge webs is deduced. The parameter studies show that the shear buckling coefficient kc of curved bridge webs is positively correlated with the parameter h2 / (Rt), and negatively correlated with the length-height ratio l/ h. This implies that the elastic shear buckling stress of a curved bridge web is larger than that of an equivalent straight bridge web. For a curved bridge with the parameter h2 / (Rt) less than 2, the amount of increase is less than 4.5%. The elastic shear buckling stress of curved bridge webs can be estimated conservatively as the webs in straight bridges. While for a curved bridge with larger h2 / (Rt), using the equations for straight girders to calculate the elastic shear buckling stress is too conservative. The proposed formulas provide a more accurate estimation for shear buckling stress of curved bridge webs.

Coupled Vibration of Long-Span Railway Curved Girder Bridges and Vehicles

The structure of a long curved girder bridge is represented with a three-dimensional curved finite element model. Each 4-axle ~vehicle is modeled by a dynamic system of 35 degrees of freedom. The random irregularities of the track are generated from a power spectral density function under the given track condition. The dynamic interaction between the bridge and train is realized through the contact forces between the wheels and track. Then based on these models, the coupled equations of motion are solved by applying the time-integration and iteration techniques to the coupled system. The proposed formulation and the associated computer program are then applied to a real curved girder bridge. The dynamic responses of the bridge-vehicle system and the derailments and offload factors related to the riding and running safeties of vehicles are computed. The results show that the formulation presented in this paper can well predict dynamic behaviors of both bridge and train with reasonable computation efforts.

Behaviour and Analysis of Horizontally Curved Steel Box-Girder Bridges

Various theories and analytical formulations were implemented and exploited in the 1980s and 1990s for the design of bridge beams or decks curved in the horizontal plane and subjected to out-of-plane loads. Nowadays, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is a valid tool for the analysis of structures with complex geometries and, therefore, the development of sophisticated analytical formulations is not needed anymore. However, they are still useful for the validation of FE models. This paper presents the case study of an existing viaduct built in North Italy, aiming to compare analytical approaches and numerical modelling. The bridge is characterized by an axis curved in two directions and a rectilinear segment. The global analysis of the viaduct is carried out with special attention to the attributes that cause torque action and bending moment. The theoretical developments focus on a deeper understanding of the torsional response under different constraint and loading conditions and aspire to raise awareness of the mutual interaction of flexural and torsional behaviour, that are always present in these complex curved systems. The examination of the case study is also obtained by comparing the response of isostatic and hyperstatic curvilinear steel box-girders.

Semi-active control of a cable-stayed bridge under multiple-support excitations

This paper presents a semi-active strategy for seismic protection of a benchmark cable-stayed bridge with consideration of multiple-support excitations. In this control strategy, Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are proposed as control devices, a LQG-clipped-optimal control algorithm is employed. An active control strategy, shown in previous researches to perform well at controlling the benchmark bridge when uniform earthquake motion was assumed, is also used in this study to control this benchmark bridge with consideration of multiple-support excitations. The performance of active control system is compared to that of the presented semi-active control strategy. Because the MR fluid damper is a con-trollable energy- dissipation device that cannot add mechanical energy to the structural system, the proposed control strategy is fail-safe in that bounded-input, bounded-output stability of the controlled structure is guaranteed. The numerical results demonstrated that the performance of the presented control design is nearly the same as that of the active control system; and that the MR dampers can effectively be used to control seismically excited cable-stayed bridges with multiple-support excitations.

Numerical simulation of dynamic characteristics of a cable-stayed aqueduct bridge

In this paper, a full-scale 3-D finite element model of the Jundushan cable-stayed aqueduct bridge is established with ANSYS Code. The shell, fluid, tension-only spar and beam elements are used for modeling the aqueduct deck, filled water, cables and support towers, respectively. A multi-element cable formulation is introduced to simulate the cable vibration. The dry （without water） and wet （with water） modes of the aqueduct bridge are both extracted and investigated in detail. The dry modes of the aqueduct bridge are basically similar to those of highway cable-stayed bridges. A dry mode may correspond to two types of wet modes, which are called the in-phase （with lower frequency） and out-of-phase （with higher frequency） modes. When the water-structure system vibrates in the in-phase/out-of-phase modes, the aqueduct deck moves and water sloshes in the same/opposite phase-angle, and the sloshing water may take different surface-wave modes. The wet modes of the system reflect the properties of interaction among the deck, towers, cables and water. The in-phase wet frequency generally decreases as the water depth increases, and the out-of-phase wet frequency may increase or decrease as the water depth increases.

Ground motion spatial variability effects on seismic response control of cable-stayed bridges

The spatial variability of input ground motion at supporting foundations plays a key role in the structural response of cable-stayed bridges （CSBs）; therefore, spatial variation effects should be included in the analysis and design of effective vibration control systems. The control of CSBs represents a challenging and unique problem, with many complexities in modeling, control design and implementation, since the control system should be designed not only to mitigate the dynamic component of the structural response but also to counteract the effects of the pseudo-static component of the response. The spatial variability effects on the feasibility and efficiency of seismic control systems for the vibration control of CSBs are investigated in this paper. The assumption of uniform earthquake motion along the entire bridge may result in quantitative and qualitative differences in seismic response as compared with those produced by uniform motion at all supports. A systematic comparison of passive and active system performance in reducing the structural responses is performed, focusing on the effect of the spatially varying earthquake ground motion on the seismic response of a benchmark CSB model with different control strategies, and demonstrates the importance of accounting for the spatial variability of excitations.

Optimization of Dead Load State in Earth-Anchored Cable-Stayed Bridges

In order to determine the reasonable completed dead load state in earth-anchored cable-stayed bridges,a practical method is proposed. The method is based on the rigidly supported continuous beam method and the feasible zone method,emphasizing on the mutual effect between the self-anchored structural parts and the earth-anchored ones. Three cable-stayed bridge models are designed with the main spans of 1 400 m,including a partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge,a cable-stayed-suspension bridge and a fully selfanchored cable-stayed bridge,in which the C50 concrete and Q345 steel are adopted. The partially earthanchored cable-stayed bridge and the cable-stayed-suspension bridge secure lower compressive force in the girder than the fully self-anchored cable-stayed bridge by 25 percent at least. The same is for the material consumption of the whole bridge. Furthermore,the anchor volume is more than 20% lower in the partially earthanchored cable-stayed bridge than that in the cable-stayed-suspension bridge. Consequently,the practical span of cable-stayed bridges can be accordingly extended.

Comparative Study on Structural Redundancy of Cable-Stayed and Extradosed Bridges Through Safety Assessment of Their Stay Cables

This study provides new insights into the comparison of cable-stayed and extradosed bridges based on the safety assessment of their stay cables.These bridges are often regarded as identical structures owing to the use of inclined cables;however,the international standards for bridge design stipulate different safety factors for stay cables of both types of bridges.To address this misconception,a comparative study was carried out on the safety factors of stay cables under fatigue and ultimate limit states by considering the effects of various untoward and damaging factors,such as overloading,cable loss,and corrosion.The primary goal of this study is to describe the structural disparities between both types of bridges and evaluate their structural redundancies by employing deterministic and nondeterministic methods.To achieve this goal,three-dimensional finite-element models of both bridges were developed based on the current design guidelines for stay cables in Japan.After the balanced states of the bridge models were achieved,static analyses were performed for different safety factors of stay cables in a parametric manner.Finally,the first-order reliability method and Monte Carlo method were applied to determine the reliability index of stay cables.The analysis results show that cable-stayed and extradosed bridges exhibit different structural redundancies for different safety factors under the same loading conditions.Moreover,a significant increase in structural redundancy occurs with an incremental increase in the safety factors of stay cables.

Infl uence of structural parameters on dynamic characteristics and wind-induced buffeting responses of a super-long-span cable-stayed bridge

A 3D finite element （FE） model for the Sutong cable-stayed bridge （SCB） is established based on ANSYS. The dynamic characteristics of the bridge are analyzed using a subspace iteration method. Based on recorded wind data, the measured spectra expression is presented using the nonlinear least-squares regression method. Turbulent winds at the bridge site are simulated based on the spectral representation method and the FFT technique. The influence of some key structural parameters and measures on the dynamic characteristics of the bridge are investigated. These parameters include dead load intensity, as well as vertical, lateral and torsional stiffness of the steel box girder. In addition, the influence of elastic stiffness of the connection device employed between the towers and the girder on the vibration mode of the steel box girder is investigated. The analysis shows that all of the vertical, lateral and torsional buffeting displacement responses reduce gradually as the dead load intensity increases. The dynamic characteristics and the structural buffeting displacement response of the SCB are only slightly affected by the vertical and torsional stiffness of the steel box girder, and the lateral and torsional buffeting displacement responses reduce gradually as the lateral stiffness increases. These results provide a reference for dynamic analysis and design of super-long-span cable-stayed bridges.

Dynamic performance of cable-stayed bridge tower with multi-stage pendulum mass damper under wind excitations——I:Theory

In this paper, wind-induced vibration control of a single column tower of a cable-stayed bridge with a multi- stage pendulum mass damper （MSPMD） is investigated. Special attention is given to overcoming space limitations for installing the control device in the tower and the effect of varying natural frequency of the towers during construction. First, the finite element model of the bridge during its construction and the basic equation of motion of the MSPMD are introduced. The equation of motion of the bridge with the MSPMD under along-wind excitation is then established. Finally, a numerical simulation and parametric study are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the control system for reducing the wind-induced vibration of the bridge towers during construction. The numerical simulation results show that the MSPMD is practical and effective for reducing the along-wind response of the single column tower, can be installed in a small area of the tower, and complies with the time-variant characteristics of the bridge during its entire construction stage.

Analysis on Deflection Characteristics of Steel Cable-Stayed Bridge

Various kinds of deflection characteristics on the steel cable-stayed bridge(Nanjing No.3 Yangtze River Bridge)are investigated by different mathematical statistical methods.Firstly,via Pearson correlation coefficient calculation,it shows good consistency between the adjacent measuring point of side span or middle span.Secondly,taking mid-span deflection as an example,the correlation analysis of deflection and temperature is conducted.They are synchronous via cross correlation coefficient calculation but not completely linear and a"hysteresis loop"phenomenon of three stages is formed.The fitting result on the monitoring data at day time is consistent with the numerical value through the application of unit temperature difference between the cable and girder and the positive temperature gradient of girder in the finite element model.And the temperature effect is considerable.Vehicle loads effect is obtained from wavelet analysis.The extracted curve can indirectly reflect the change of traffic loads.Finally,the structural damage is analyzed through the trend fusion on the deflection,cable force and visual inspection from 2006 to 2015.Relevant conclusions can provide a basis for management departments to carry out special detection.