Alternative Load Path Analysis for Assessing the Geometric Agreement of a Cable-Stayed Bridge with Steel Truss Girders

The geometric agreement, commonly hailed as load-transferring paths withinbridge structures, is significantly crucial to the bridge structural mechanicalperformance, such as capacity, deformation, and collapse behavior. This paperpresents a methodology dependent on alternative load paths to investigate thecollapse behavior of a double-pylon cable-stayed bridge with steel truss girderssubjected to excess vehicle loading. The cable-stayed bridge with steel trussgirders is simplified using a series-parallel load-bearing system. This researchmanifests that the enforced vehicle loading can be transferred to alternativepaths of cable-stayed bridges in different load-structure scenarios. A 3-Dfinite element model is established utilizing computer software ANSYS to explorethe collapse path of cable-stayed bridge with steel truss girders, taking intoaccount chord failure, loss of cables together with corrosion in steel trussgirders. The results show that chord failures in the mid-portion of the mainspan result in brittle damage in truss girders or even sudden bridge collapse. Further,the loss of long cables leads to ductile damage with significant displacement.The corrosion in steel truss girders has a highly slight influence on the collapsebehavior of cable-stayed bridge. The proposed methodology can be reliably usedto assess and determine the vulnerability of cable-stayed bridge with steeltruss girders during their service lifetime, thus preventing structural collapsesin this type of bridge.

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