Simulation of the time-dependent phenomena effects in staggered erected cable-stayed bridges

In a staggered erected cable-stayed bridge made of concrete, time-dependent phenomena effects might play an important role in both its geometry and its stress state. To guarantee that allowable stresses and deflections are not exceeded during erection, a number of simulation methods are presented in the literature. Some of these methods, concretely those based on a backward simulation approach, fail addressing the effects of the time-dependent phenomena. To simulate these effects, methods based on the forward simulation approach are traditionally followed. Nevertheless, the main trade-off of these algorithms is that their computation is based on complex iterative processes that make simulation more time consuming. To fill this gap, a new simulation algorithm, the Forward-Direct Algorithm (FDA), is formally presented in this paper to simulate the construction process of cable-stayed bridges including the time-dependent phenomena effects.