Ultimate Load Carrying Capacity of Two Long Span Arch Bridges

摘要

Ultimate load carrying capacity is one of important factors for long span arch bridges. In this paper,ultimate load carrying capacity analysis of two long span arch bridges in China is introduced. Thefirst bridge is Taiping Lake Bridge, which is a concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) arch bridge withmain span of 336m in Anhui Province. The second bridge is Chaotianmen Bridge, which is a trussbridge with main span of 552m in Chongqing City, and Chaotianmen Bridge will break the worldrecord of arch bridge, which is holding by Lupu Bridge now. The analysis is based on nonlinearfinite element method (FEM), and the whole collapse process which passed through several plastichinges is introduced in detail. Different characteristics of ultimate load carrying capacity aboutthose two types of arch bridges are also compared, which will give some helpful experiences forsimilar bridges.