To Study the effect of Pylon Shapes on static and Dynamic Response of cable-stayed bridges

Abstract

Cable-stayed bridges have become the form of choice for bridges in the medium to long-span (200 to 2000m) range over the past few decades. They represent the key points along infrastructure networks and requires a substantial knowledge of their structural response under vehicular and wind load. Nowadays, the increase of cable-stayed bridge usage implies the study of static and dynamic behaviors of these types of structures with respect to different loadings. Moreover, in cable-stayed bridges there is a variety of shapes of pylon or tower, pylon shape can have a potential to reduce or increase the response of the bridge under certain types of loading. In addition, as per structural analysis and design requirements of structures, the shape of the structural member or the whole structure which gives less response to applied loading is preferred; for this reason, a pylon shape for which the responses quantities (bending moments, axial forces, deflections, pylon base reaction, etc) are less should be recommended. In this study, investigation of the effect of pylon shape on the response of cable-stayed bridges under static and dynamic loading has been done. The software SAP2000 version 14 has been used for modeling and analysis. Analysis of dead load, static and moving vehicular load and wind load has been performed. The results have shown that most of the various response quantities for inverted -Y pylon shape are less as compared to structural responses of other pylon shapes considered in this study. It has been concluded that inverted-Y pylon shape is statically and dynamically stronger than other pylon shapes under the action of loads considered in this study.