Shake Table Studies of Seismic Damage of a Kilometre-scale cable- stayed Bridge

To investigate the transverse seismic damage of a kilometre-scale cable-stayed bridge, a cable- stayed Bridge with two inverted Y-shaped reinforced concrete towers and a main span of 1088 m was selected as the prototype and a 1/35 scaled bridge model was designed, constructed and tested on 4 linear shake tables at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. Sliding bearings which allow the longitudinal movement of the main girder with little friction effect while prevent the transverse movement were used at the towers and the piers. The bridge model was tested up to failure by using a site specific artificial wave from low to high intensity in transverse direction. Test results showed that: (1) flexure failure occurred at the right tower leg of tower 1 at the level just above the crossbeam; (2) the maximum transverse displacement response of the tower was observed at the mid-height; (3) 4 peak sectional curvature responses were observed along the tower.