Seismic performance evaluation for super-long span cable-stayed bridges

Based on the capacity/demand(C/D)analysis of bridge components,and life cycle and performance based seismic design principles,a practical approach is developed for the seismic performance evaluation of super-long span cable-stayed bridges.According to the approach,the seismic performance evaluation of the Sutong Bridge,which is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1 088 m,is completed,and the practicality of the approach is validated.The earthquake resistance level for super-long span cable-stayed bridges is discussed,including the earthquake level,its corresponding structural performance and check indices.And a set of formula for capacity/demand ratio calculation of bridge components is proposed.

Three-dimensional nonlinear flutter analysis of long-span suspension bridges during erection

In this work, the aerodynamic stability of the Yichang Suspension Bridge over Yangtze River during erection was determined by three dimensional nonlinear flutter analysis, in which the nonlinearities of structural dynamic characteristics and aeroelastic forces caused by large deformation are fully considered. An interesting result obtained was that the bridge was more stable when the stiffening girders were erected in a non symmetrical manner as opposed to the traditional symmetrical erection schedule. It was also found that the severe decrease in the aerodynamic stability was due to the nonlinear effects. Therefore, the nonlinear factors should be considered accurately in aerodynamic stability analysis of long span suspension bridges during erection.

Seismic spatial effects on dynamic response of long-span bridges in stationary inhomogeneous random fields

The seismic analysis of long-span bridges subjected to multiple ground excitations is an important problem. The conventional response spectrum method neglects the spatial effects of ground motion,and therefore may result in questionable conclusions.The random vibration approach has been regarded as more reliable.Unfortunately,so far, computational difficulties have not yet been satisfactorily resolved.In this paper,an accurate and efficient random vibration approach—pseudo excitation method (PEM),by which the above difficulties are overcome,is presented.It has been successfully used in the three dimensional seismic analysis of a number of long-span bridges with thousands of degrees of freedom and dozens of supports.The numerical results of a typical bridge show that the seismic spatial effects~ particularly the wave passage effect,are sometimes quite important in evaluating the safety of long-span bridges.

Structural health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges using wavelet packet analysis

During the service life of civil engineering structures such as long-span bridges, local damage at key positions may continually accumulate, and may finally result in their sudden failure. One core issue of global vibration-based health monitoring methods is to seek some damage indices that are sensitive to structural damage, This paper proposes an online structural health monitoring method for long-span suspension bridges using wavelet packet transform （WPT）. The WPT- based method is based on the energy variations of structural ambient vibration responses decomposed using wavelet packet analysis. The main feature of this method is that the proposed wavelet packet energy spectrum （WPES） has the ability to detect structural damage from ambient vibration tests of a long-span suspension bridge. As an example application, the WPES-based health monitoring system is used on the Runyang Suspension Bridge under daily environmental conditions. The analysis reveals that changes in environmental temperature have a long-term influence on the WPES, while the effect of traffic loadings on the measured WPES of the bridge presents instantaneous changes because of the nonstationary properties of the loadings. The condition indication indices VD reflect the influences of environmental temperature on the dynamic properties of the Runyang Suspension Bridge. The field tests demonstrate that the proposed WPES-based condition indication index VD is a good candidate index for health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges under ambient excitations.

Long Term Application of a Vehicle-Based Health Monitoring System to Short and Medium Span Bridges and Damage Detection Sensitivity

Largest portion of the bridge stock in almost any country and bridge owning organisation consists on ordinary bridges that has short or medium spans and are now deteriorating due to aging, etc. Therefore, it is becoming an important social concern to develop and put to practical use simple and efficient health monitoring systems for existing short and medium span (10 - 30 m) bridges. In this paper, one practical solution to the problem for condition assessment of short and medium span bridges was discussed. A vehicle-based measurement with a public bus as part of a public transit system (called “Bus monitoring system”) has been developed to be capable of detecting damage that may affect the structural safety of a bridge from long term vibration measurement data collected while the vehicle (bus) crossed the target bridges. This paper systematically describes how the system has been developed. The bus monitoring system aims to detect the transition from the damage acceleration period, in which the structural safety of an aged bridge declines sharply, to the deterioration period by continually monitoring the bridge of interest. To evaluate the practicality of the newly developed bus monitoring system, it has been field-tested over a period of about four years by using an in-service fixed-route bus operating on a bus route in the city of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The verification results thus obtained are also described in this paper. This study also evaluates the sensitivity of “characteristic deflection”, which is a bridge (health) condition indicator used by the bus monitoring system, in damage detection. Sensitivity of “characteristic deflection” is verified by introducing artificial damage into a bridge that has ended its service life and is awaiting removal. As the results, it will be able to make a rational long-term health monitoring system for existing short and mediumspan bridges, and then the system helps bridge administrators to establish the rational maintenance strategies.

Numerical simulation of aerodynamic derivatives and critical wind speed for long-span bridges based on simplified steady wind field

Combining the computational fluid dynamics-based numerical simulation with the forced vibration technique for extraction of aerodynamic derivatives, an approach for calculating the aerodynamic derivatives and the critical flutter wind speed for long-span bridges is presented in this paper. The RNG k-ε turbulent model is introduced to establish the governing equations, including the continuity equation and the Navier-Stokes equations, for solving the wind flow field around a two-dimensional bridge section. To illustrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach, a simple application to the Hume Bridge in China is provided, and the numerical results show that the aerodynamic derivatives and the critical flutter wind speed obtained agree well with the wind tunnel test results.

Acomparative study between China and U.S.on seismic design philosophy and practice of a long span arch bridge

This paper presents the first of a series of case studies on the seismic design of long span bridges （cable-stayed bridges, suspension bridges and arch bridges） under a cooperative research project on seismic behavior and design of highway bridges between the State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, University at Buffalo. The objective of this series of case studies is to examine the differences and similarities on the seismic design practice of long span bridges in China and the U.S., to identify research needs and to develop design guidelines beneficial to bridge engineers in both countries. Unlike short to medium span bridges, long span bridges are not included in most seismic design specifications, mainly because they are location dependent and structurally unique. In this paper, an available model of a steel tied half through arch bridge with a main span of 550m in China is discussed. Analysis is focused on comparisons of the seismic responses due to different ground motions. Seismic design criteria and seismic performance requirements for long span bridges in both countries were first introduced and compared, and then three near field earthquake records with large vertical components were selected as the excitations to examine the seismic behavior and seismic vulnerability of the bridge. Results show that （1） the selected near field ground motions cause larger responses to key components （critical sections） of the bridge （such as arch rib ends） with a maximum increase of more than twice those caused by the site specific ground motions; （2） piers, longitudinal girders and arch crowns are more vulnerable to vertical motions, especially their axial forces; and （3） large vertical components of near field ground motions may not significantly affect the bridge＇s internal forces provided that their peak acceleration spectra ordinates only appear at periods of less than 0.2s. However, they may have more influence on the longitudinal displacements of sliding bearings due to their large displacement spectra ordinates at the fundamental period of the bridge.

Longitudinal force in continuously welded rail on long-span tied arch continuous bridge carrying multiple tracks

Considering arch rib, lateral brace, suspender, girder, pier and track position, the model for the interaction between long-span tied arch continuous bridge and multiple tracks was established by using steel-concrete composite section beam element to simulate concrete-filled steel tube(CFST) arch rib, using the beam element with rigid arm to simulate the prestressed concrete girder and using nonlinear bar element to simulate longitudinal constraint between track and bridge. Taking a(77+3×156.8+77) m tied arch continuous bridge with four tracks on the Harbin-Qiqihar Passenger Dedicated Line as an example, the arrangement of continuously welded rail(CWR) was explored. The longitudinal force in CWR on the tied arch continuous bridge, the pier top horizontal force and torque due to the unbalance load case, were analyzed under the action of temperature, vertical live load, train braking and wind load.Studies show that, it can significantly reduce track displacement to set the track expansion devices at main span arch springing on both sides; the track stress due to arch temperature variation can reach 40.8 MPa; the track stress, pier top horizontal force and torque are related to the number of loaded tracks and train running direction, and the bending force applied to unloaded track is close to the loaded track, while the braking force applied to unloaded track is 1/4 to 1/2 of the loaded track; the longitudinal force of track due to the wind load is up to 12.4 MPa, which should be considered.

Seismic spatial effects on long-span bridge response in nonstationary inhomogeneous random fields

The long-span bridge response to nonstationary multiple seismic random excitations is investigated using the PEM (pseudo excitation method). This method transforms the nonstationary random response analysis into ordinary direct dynamic analysis, and therefore, the analysis can be solved conveniently using the Newmark, Wilson-9 schemes or the precise integration method. Numerical results of the seismic response for an actual long-span bridge using the proposed PEM are given and compared with the results based on the conventional stationary analysis. From the numerical comparisons, it was found that both the seismic spatial effect and the nonstationary effect are quite important, and that both stationary and nonstationary seismic analysis should pay special attention to the wave passage effect.

Numerical analysis of dynamic response of vehicle–bridge coupled system on long-span continuous girder bridge

To systematically study the vehicle-bridge coupled dynamic response and its change rule with different parameters, a vehicle model with seven degrees of freedom was built and the total potential energy of vehicle space vibration system was deduced. Considering the stimulation of road roughness, the dynamic response equation of vehicle-bridge coupled system was established in accordance with the elastic system principle of total potential energy with stationary value and the ＂set-in-right-position＂ rule. On the basis of the self-compiled Fortran program and bridge engineering, the dynamic response of long- span continuous girder bridge under vehicle load was studied. This study also included the calculation of vehicle impact coefficient, evaluation of vibration comfort, and analysis of dynamic response parameters. Results show the impact coefficient changes with lane number and is larger than the value calculated by the ＂general code for design of highway bridges and culverts （China）＂. The Dieckmann index of bridge vibration is also related to lane number, and the vibration comfort evaluation is good in normal conditions. The relevant conclusions from parametric analyses have practical significance to dynamic design and daily operation of long-span continuous girder bridges in expressways. Safety and comfort are expected to improve significantly with further control of the vibration of vehicle-bridge system.

Technology for long cable erection of a thousand-meter scale cable-stayed bridge

In the background of the construction of Sutong Yangtze River Bridge(short as Sutong Bridge),the cable construction method and techniques of a thousand-meter scale cable-stayed bridge are introduced.Some key construction techniques,such as outspreading cable on deck,installing cable at pylon,pulling and fixing cable at the attachment with decks and cable PE sheath protection are discussed.

Key Technologies for Design of Changqing Yellow River Super-long Bridge of Zhengzhou Ji'nan HSR

Changqing Yellow River Super-long Bridge of Zhengzhou-Ji'nan HSR is a partial cable-stayed bridge with concrete main girder and a unit length of 1,080 m.Studies are carried out on the key technologies of bridge design,and the main conclusions are as follows:The whole unit adopts the supporting system of tower pier consolidation and tower-beam separation,and each pier is provided with seismic mitigation and isolation bearing;shaped-steel reinforced concrete bridge tower is adopted to bring into full play the tensile performance of steel and the compressive performance of concrete,and avoid the construction challenges of setting up multi-layer and multi-stirrup reinforcement while improving the bearing capacity of section;a new type of double-side and bi-directional anti-skid anchorage device is adopted for the cable saddle of wire divider pipe in order to withstand the unbalanced cable force,and verify the reliability of the anti-skid anchorage device by solid model test;and large-segment cantilever pouring design is adopted for the main girder with a maximum segment length of 8 m to effectively shorten the construction period of the bridge.

Analysis on influence of seismic travelling wave effect on semi-active control for long-span rigid-continuous bridge

The analysis approach of semi-active control for long-span rigid-continuous bridge under seismic travelling wave input is established. Magnetorheological dampers are set on the positions of the bridge beatings. The semi-active control calculation and analysis are performed for a five-span rigid-continuous bridge under seismic travelling waves with different apparent surface velocities. The results indicate that travelling wave effect remarkably influences the uncontrolled seismic responses, the semi-active control seismic responses and vibration control effects for the long-span rigid-continuous bridge. It is disadvantageous to the responses of the beams and the piers under the travelling wave input with lower apparent surface velocity, and travelling wave effect can decrease the vibration control effects evidently. Therefore, the travelling wave effect should be considered for the selection of the parameter values of semi-active control system in order to get the designing control effect.

Non-stationary Buffeting Response Analysis of Long Span Suspension Bridge Under Strong Wind Loading

The non-stationary buffeting response of long span suspension bridge in time domain under strong wind loading is computed. Modeling method for generating non-stationary fluctuating winds with probabilistic model for non-stationary strong wind fields is first presented. Non-stationary wind forces induced by strong winds on bridge deck and tower are then given a brief introduction. Finally,Non-stationary buffeting response of Pulite Bridge in China,a long span suspension bridge,is computed by using ANSYS software under four working conditions with different combination of time-varying mean wind and time-varying variance. The case study further confirms that it is necessity of considering non-stationary buffeting response for long span suspension bridge under strong wind loading,rather than only stationary buffeting response.

Modeling of cable vibration effects of cable-stayed bridges

The analysis of dynamic responses of cable-stayed bridges subjected to wind and earthquake loads generally considers only the motions of the bridge deck and pylons.The influence of the stay cable vibration on the responses of the bridge is either ignored or considered by approximate procedures.The transverse vibration of the stay cables,which can be significant in some cases,are usually neglected in previous research.In the present study,a new three-node cable element has been developed to model the transverse motions of the cables.The interactions between the cable behavior and the other parts of the bridge superstructure are considered by the concept of dynamic stiffness.The nonlinear effect of the cable caused by its self-weight is included in the formulation.Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed model. The impact of cable vibration behavior on the dynamic characteristics of cable-stayed bridges is discussed.

Wind-induced vibration control of bridges using liquid column damper

The potential application of tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) for suppressing wind-induced vibration of long span bridges is explored in this paper.By installing the TLCD in the bridge deck,a mathematical model for the bridge-TLCD system is established.The governing equations of the system are developed by considering all three displacement components of the deck in vertical,lateral,and torsional vibrations,in which the interactions between the bridge deck,the TLCD,the aeroelastic forces,and the aerodynamic forces are fully reflected.Both buffeting and flutter analyses are carried out.The buffeting analysis is performed through random vibration approach,and a critical flutter condition is identified from flutter analysis.A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the control effectiveness of the damper and it is shown that the TLCD can be an effective device for suppressing wind-induced vibration of long span bridges,either for reducing the buffeting response or increasing the critical flutter wind velocity of the bridge.

Cable flexural rigidity influence on suspension bridges static properties

In order to figure out the cable flexural rigidity influence on suspension bridges,a contrast model experiment is made:a chain cable model with no flexural rigidity and a wire cable model with some flexural rigidity.And then,four finite element models of a same long-span suspension bridge with different cable element are set up to be analyzed.Both experimental and numerical simulation results show that,with the increase of the span and the decrease of sag-span ratio,the influence of the cable flexural rigidity is significant.The difference of nodes displacement reaches more than 10 cm in construction analysis,which will bring some trouble to the construction.And the difference of the maximum section edge normal stress may reach 15%,which may have an adverse impact onto the bridge.Therefore,considering the cable flexural rigidity is necessary on some analysis of suspension bridges.

公铁两用大跨度斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性研究

高速铁路大跨度斜拉桥结构变形受其复杂服役环境影响显著,而无砟轨道对工后变形的调整能力有限,因此大跨度斜拉桥的复杂变形条件将直接影响其上无砟轨道结构的适应性。以沪渝蓉高铁长江北支公铁两用大跨度斜拉桥应用无砟轨道为工程背景,建立无砟轨道-大跨度斜拉桥一体化精细空间有限元模型,分析铁路、公路以及温度等多种荷载联合作用下大跨度斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系平顺性、无缝线路稳定性和无砟轨道层间变形协调性,从而对大跨度公铁两用钢桁梁斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性开展深入研究。结果表明:在运营荷载及温度荷载最不利组合作用下,大跨度斜拉桥主梁线形平顺,变形平缓,桥梁整体刚度较好,桥上无砟轨道几何形位可以满足静态验收标准;大跨度斜拉桥上无缝线路的强度和稳定性满足要求,扣件工作性能良好,钢轨伸缩调节器的设置可有效释放梁端钢轨的纵向应力;无砟轨道层间设置橡胶隔离层且不跨主梁桁架节间的布置方式可提高大跨度斜拉桥上无砟轨道的变形协调性能,使得桥上无砟轨道层间始终处于受压状态,达到“隔而不离”的桥上轨道层间理想服役状态;大跨度公铁两用钢桁梁斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性良好。本文研究成果可为公铁两用大跨度钢桁梁斜拉桥上无砟轨道的应用提供技术参考。

大跨度斜拉桥模态参数长期追踪及其变异性分析

为了丰富大跨度斜拉桥模态参数的实测数据库,依托苏通大桥结构健康监测系统采集的数据,采用所建立的模态自动识别和追踪方法,获取了2010年期间该桥的模态参数值,并据此分析了在温度和风速作用下桥梁模态参数的变异性。研究结果表明,大桥主梁模态频率的变化受温度和风速共同影响,随着温度的升高而降低,随着风速的升高而增加。大桥主梁模态阻尼比的变异性显著大于模态频率,低风速下主梁一阶侧弯阻尼比在0.5%~15%之间波动,风速大于9 m/s时逐渐降低并稳定在2%左右。大桥主梁前四阶竖弯阻尼比受气动阻尼的影响较大,在风速较小时随着风速的增加略有增加。研究结果可为大桥的服役性能评估与运营管理提供参考。

超长大跨度公铁合建桥梁结构体系研究

新建甬舟铁路西堠门公铁两用大桥连接金塘岛和册子岛,桥位处海域宽2.7 km,最大水深93 m,地形复杂,桥梁设计难度大。为研究超长大跨度公铁合建桥梁合理结构体系,结合地形地质条件,选取主跨1500 m悬索桥、斜拉桥及斜拉悬索协作体系3种桥型方案,对上部结构设计进行详细介绍,并从静力性能、动力性能、经济性能等方面对不同结构体系进行对比分析。研究表明:(1)与斜拉体系相比,协作体系桥可减小30%~50%的主梁内力和60%的桥塔内力,一定程度上解决了加劲梁承受巨大轴压力造成屈曲问题,并有效减小了桥塔规模;(2)与悬索桥相比,协作体系可减小50%的主缆内力,主缆钢丝和锚碇的工程量相应减小,施工难度得以降低,同时协作体系扭转频率更高,降低了结构在较低风速下发生涡激振动的可能性;(3)斜拉悬索协作体系能够充分发挥斜拉结构和悬索结构的组合优势,实现超大跨度的同时具有较大的纵向刚度和竖向刚度,满足铁路行车对结构刚度的要求;(4)对于主跨1500 m级超长大跨度公铁合建桥梁,斜拉悬索协作体系经济性更好。