• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제24권4호
• /
• pp.367-384
• /
• 2017

The Maanshan Bridge over Yangtze River in China is a new long-span suspension bridge with double main spans of $2{\times}1080m$ and a closed streamline cross-section of single box deck. The flutter and buffeting performances were investigated via wind tunnel tests of a full bridge aeroelastic model at a geometric scale of 1:211. The tests were conducted in both smooth wind and simulated boundary layer wind fields. Emphasis is placed on studying the interference effect of adjacent span via installing a wind deflector and a wind separating board to shelter one span of the bridge model from incoming flow. Issues related to effects of mid-tower stiffness and deck supporting conditions are also discussed. The testing results show that flutter critical wind velocities in smooth flow, with a wind deflector, are remarkably lower than those without. In turbulent wind, torsional and vertical standard deviations for the deck responses at midspan in testing cases without wind deflector are generally less than those at the midspan exposed to wind in testing cases with wind deflector, respectively. When double main spans are exposed to turbulent wind, the existence of either span is a mass damper to the other. Furthermore, both effects of mid-tower stiffness and deck supporting conditions at the middle tower on the flutter and buffeting performances of the Maanshan Bridge are unremarkable.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• 제9권2호통권31호
• /
• pp.269-275
• /
• 1997

Wind tunnel test results and their interpretations, which were performed to study the aerodynamic stability of tower of self-anchored suspension bridge, are presented in this paper. Tower and full models were tested under smooth and turbulent flow conditions. In the case of the tower with inclined two columns, the vibration due to wakes were occurred at wide velocity zone because the wakes with various frequencies were generated by inclined upstream column. It has to be emphasized that the vibration characteristics of the tower in the self-anchored suspension bridge may be very sensitive to the longitudinal boundary conditions of the girder at the supports. Because of the two natural frequency of the tower, out-of-plane bending and torsional, were not well separated, coupled motions were observed in a wide range of wind velocity. The effectiveness of corner cut, countermeasure to reduce the tower vibrations, was also studied. It has been found that 1:10, comer cut size to column width, may be the most effective ratio for reducing the vibrations.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제29권3호
• /
• pp.163-175
• /
• 2019

Multispan suspension bridges make a good alternative to single-span ones if the crossed strait or river width exceeds 2-3 km. However, multispan three-tower suspension bridges are found to be very sensitive to the wind load due to the lack of effective longitudinal constraint at their central tower. Moreover, at certain critical wind speed values, the aerostatic instability with sharply deteriorating dynamic characteristics may occur with catastrophic consequences. An attempt of an in-depth study on the aerostatic stability mode and damage mechanism of three-tower suspension bridges is made in this paper based on the assessment of strain energy and dynamic characteristics of three particular three-tower suspension bridges in China under different wind speeds and their further integration into the aerostatic stability analysis. The results obtained on the three bridges under study strongly suggest that their aerostatic instability mode is controlled by the coupled action of the anti-symmetric torsion and vertical bending of the two main-spans' deck, together with the longitudinal bending of the towers, which can be regarded as the first-order torsion vibration mode coupled with the first-order vertical bending vibration mode. The growth rates of the torsional and vertical bending strain energy of the deck after the aerostatic instability are higher than those of the lateral bending. The bending and torsion frequencies decrease rapidly when the wind speed approaches the critical value, while the frequencies of the anti-symmetric vibration modes drop more sharply than those of the symmetric ones. The obtained dependences between the critical wind speed, strain energy, and dynamic characteristics of the bridge components under the aerostatic instability modes are considered instrumental in strength and integrity calculation of three-tower suspension bridges.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제6권1호
• /
• pp.53-70
• /
• 2003

Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong is the longest suspension bridge in the world carrying both highway and railway. It has two H-shape concrete towers, each of which is composed of two reinforced concrete legs and four deep transverse prestressed concrete beams. A series of wind tunnel tests have been performed to measure the aerodynamic coefficients of the tower legs and transverse beams in various arrangements. A 1:100 scaled 3D rigid model of the full bridge tower assembled from various tower components has been constructed for different test cases. The aerodynamic coefficients of the lower and upper segments of the windward and leeward tower legs and those of the transverse beams at different levels, with and without the dummy bridge deck model, were measured as a function of yaw wind angle. The effects of wind interference among the tower components and the influence of the bridge deck on the tower aerodynamic coefficients were also investigated. The results achieved can be used as the pertinent data for the comparison of the computed and field-measured fully coupled buffeting responses of the entire bridge under yaw winds.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제21권3호
• /
• pp.311-329
• /
• 2015

A method for analyzing the coupled wind-vehicle-bridge system is proposed that also considers the shielding effect of the bridge tower with triangular wind barriers. The static wind load and the buffeting wind load for both the bridge and the vehicle are included. The shielding effects of the bridge tower and the triangular wind barriers are incorporated by taking the surface integral of the wind load. The inter-history iteration is adopted to solve the vehicle-bridge dynamic equations with time-varying external loads. The results show that after installing the triangular wind barriers in the area of the bridge tower, the bridge response and the vehicle safety factors change slightly. The peak value of the train car body acceleration is significantly reduced when the wind barrier size is increased.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제81권2호
• /
• pp.147-161
• /
• 2022

The Brace-Type Shear Fuse (BSF) device is a newly proposed steel damper with excellent cumulative ductility and stable energy dissipation. In consideration of the current situation where there are not many alternatives for transversal seismic devices used in long-span three-tower self-anchored bridges (TSSBs), this paper implements improved BSFs into the world's longest TSSB, named Jinan Fenghuang Yellow River Bridge. The new details of the BSF are developed for the TSSB, and the force-displacement hysteretic curves of the BSFs are obtained using finite element (FE) simulations. A three-dimensional refined finite element model for the research TSSB was established in SAP2000, and the effects of BSFs on dynamic characteristics and seismic response of the TSSB under different site conditions were investigated by the numerical simulation method. The results show that remarkable controlling effects of BSFs on seismic response of TSSBs under different site conditions were obtained. Compared with the case without BSFs, the TSSB installed with BSFs has mitigation ratios of the tower top displacement, lateral girder displacement, tower bending moment and tower shear force exceeding 95%, 78%, 330% and 346%, respectively. Meanwhile, BSFs have a sufficient restoring force mechanism with a minor post-earthquake residual displacement. The proposed BSFs exhibit good application prospects in long-span TSSBs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• 제9권2호통권31호
• /
• pp.181-191
• /
• 1997

Before cables are constructed, tower of suspension bridge is behaved as a cantilever type. Buffeting occured by unsteady loading of the tower due to velocity fluctuation in the oncoming flow has a wind velocity consistent with fundamental frequency of the tower and may give rise to large response by the tower resonance. To reduce the dynamic response by buffeting, the behavior of tower with TMD(Tuned Mass Damper) has studied using finite element method in time domain. The buffeting was obtained by transforming the velocity spectrum in frequency domain to random variable in certain time domain. The most probable maximum displacement which can be occured during the time interval was obtained using peak factor. The optimum location for TMD installation and TMD specification were decided by parametric study. Also, the effect of vibration control about various wind velocity was studied by the TMD which has optimum specification and location.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제34권1호
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2014

For simple and accurate analysis for behaviors of multi-span suspension bridges which are expected to be frequently constructed as strait-crossing bridges, the deflection theory as the peculiar theory of a suspension bridge can be applied. This paper performs a structural analysis for four-span suspension bridges using the deflection theory. Simply-supported beams with tension are used for girders and the deflections of the beams due to the vertical loads and moments at supports are calculated. The calculation is performed iteratively until the deflections satisfy the compatibility equations of cables. The results of the deflection theory analysis considering tower rigidity are compared with those of the finite element analysis for verification. Importance of the tower rigidity for four-span suspension bridges is confirmed using various compatibility equations of the cable due to variation of the constraint conditions between main cable and top of towers. In addition, the simple parametric analysis for variation of the center tower rigidity is performed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제90권2호
• /
• pp.159-175
• /
• 2024

In order to solve the problem of calculating the reasonable completed bridge state of a self-anchored hybrid cable-stayed suspension bridge (SA-HCSB), this paper proposes an analytical method. This method simplifies the main beam into a continuous beam with multi-point rigid supports and solves the support reaction forces. According to the segmented catenary theory, it simultaneously solves the horizontal forces of the main span main cables and the stay cables and iteratively calculates the equilibrium force system on the main beam in the collaborative system bridge state while completing the shape finding of the main span main cable and stay cables. Then, the horizontal forces of the side span main cables and stay cables are obtained based on the balance of horizontal forces on the bridge towers, and the shape finding of the side spans are completed according to the segmented catenary theory. Next, the difference between the support reaction forces of the continuous beam with multiple rigid supports obtained from the initial and final iterations is used to calculate the load of ballast on the side span main beam. Finally, the axial forces and strains of each segment of the main beam and bridge tower are obtained based on the loads applied by the main cable and stay cables on the main beam and bridge tower, thereby obtaining analytical data for the bridge in the reasonable completed state. In this paper, the rationality and effectiveness of this analytical method are verified through a case study of a SA-HCSB with a main span of 720m in finite element analysis. At the same time, it is also verified that the equilibrium force of the main beam under the reasonably completed bridge state can be obtained through iterative calculation. The analytical algorithm in this paper has clear physical significance, strong applicability, and high accuracy of calculation results, enriching the shape-finding method of this bridge type.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제80권6호
• /
• pp.749-765
• /
• 2021

Suspension bridges bear large eccentric live loads in rush hours when most vehicles travel in one direction on the left or right side of the bridge. With the increasing number and weight of vehicles and the girder widening, the eccentric live load effect on the bridge behavior, including bending and distortion of the main girder, gets more pronounced, even jeopardizing bridge safety. This study proposes an analytical algorithm based on multi-catenary theory for predicting the suspension bridge responses to eccentric live load via the nonlinear generalized reduced gradient method. A set of governing equations is derived to solve the following unknown values: the girder rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction; the horizontal projection lengths of main cable's segments; the parameters of catenary equations and horizontal forces of the side span cable segments and the leftmost segments of middle span cables; the suspender tensions and the bearing reactions. Then girder's responses, including rigid-body displacement in the longitudinal direction, deflections, and torsion angles; suspenders' responses, including the suspender tensions and the hanging point displacements; main cables' responses, including the horizontal forces of each segment; and the longitudinal displacement of the pylons' tower top under eccentric load can be calculated. The response of an exemplar suspension bridge with three spans of 168, 548, and 168 m is calculated by the proposed analytical method and the finite element method in two eccentric live load cases, and their results prove the former's feasibility. The nonuniform distribution of the live load in the lateral direction is shown to impose a greater threat to suspension bridge safety than that in the longitudinal direction, while some other specific features revealed by the proposed method are discussed in detail.