Influence of stabilizing cables on seismic response of a multispan cable-stayed bridge

摘要

A recent trend in the design of long-span bridges is multispan cable-stayed bridges with three or more towers. A critical problem of multispan cable-stayed bridges is the stabilization of the central tower(s), which has resulted in increasing application of stabilizing cables. The Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong is one of a few multispan cable-stayed bridges adopting stabilizing cables ever built. In this article, the dynamic properties of multispan cable-stayed bridges with stabilizing cables and the effect of stabilizing cables on bridge seismic response are studied by referring to the Ting Kau Bridge. Based on a validated 3D finite-element model, modal analysis is conducted which shows that the longitudinal stabilizing cables bring about a number of global modes with strong modal interaction among the deck, towers, and cables. The seismic response and internal force in the central tower are found to be much larger than those in the side towers. The longitudinal stabilizing cables are very effective in reducing the internal force in the central tower generated by longitudinal earthquake excitation, but insignificantly affect the seismic response in the bridge deck and side towers. As a whole, the stabilizing cables act favorably in the reduction of seismic response of the bridge.