Reliability analysis of the Sutong Bridge Tower under ship impact loading

摘要

This study discusses the development of a procedure that can be used to assess the reliability of cable-stayed bridge towers under ship impact loading. Consideration is given to maintain reasonable computational effort for both the structural analysis and reliability models. Cable-stayed bridge towers including soil-pile interaction were modelled using the finite element method and ship impact loading, and were described in terms of the equivalent static loads. Reliability indices are estimated for three load combinations and two limit state functions. Results of the study show that the type of load combinations has a significant effect on the probability of failure of cable-stayed bridge towers under ship impact loading. Furthermore, a detailed sensitivity study shows that the reliability of cable-stayed bridge towers under ship impact loading is highly influenced by the design wind speed, the equivalent ship impact load, the nominal bending moment capacity about the element y-axis at the bottom section of the pylon and the allowable maximum lateral deflection.