Static and dynamic responses of suspended arch bridges due to failure of cables

Abstract

A mathematical model is proposed to investigate the behavior of a suspended arch bridge, subjected to sudden failure of cables. The main aim of this study is to analyze the effects produced by potential cables failure scenarios on the deformations and stresses of the bridge. The studied suspended arch bridge has a dense arrangement of cables, but the method described herein may be easily extended to the case of a sparse arrangement of cables. The theoretical formulation is based on a continuum approach, which has been used in the literature to analyze such bridges. Finally, the equations obtained are solved using the Duhamel’s integrals and the Laplace transform. For an exemplary bridge, results are obtained for the cases of failure of one, two and five cables, and important conclusions for structural design purposes are drawn. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.