Cracking of Longitudinal Diaphragms in Long-Span Cable-Stayed Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 11
Abstract
Longitudinal diaphragms are frequently used in steel box girders of long-span cable-stayed bridges to obtain desirable performance of steel girders. Field examination, however, reveals that premature cracking may often occur in the diaphragms after only a few years of service. Using the Runyang cable-stayed bridge (RCB) in China as an example, this paper presents an investigation of the cracking damage of longitudinal diaphragms, in which the pattern, location, and propagation of cracks are evaluated according to nondestructive field tests. To further look into the failure mechanism, a multiscale finite-element (FE) model of the RCB is developed, and the influence of diaphragms on local and global behavior of the bridge is investigated. In conjunction with a comprehensive vehicle load model developed using traffic information from a toll station, probabilistic FE analyses are performed, and the predicted fatigue lives of specific details are obtained and compared with those in field examination, where good agreement is observed.
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Acknowledgments
Support from the Jiangsu Transportation Department under Grant No. 2011Y03, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu under Grant No. BK20130023, the Education Department of Jiangsu under Grant No. JHB2012-1, and the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation under Grant No. 131074 is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Jian Xu of the KPFF Consulting Engineers for his information and advice on this study.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 11 • November 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 28, 2014
Accepted: Dec 19, 2014
Published online: Apr 17, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 17, 2015
Published in print: Nov 1, 2015
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