Multi-scale Analysis of the Steel Cable Anchorage System of Self-Anchored Suspension Bridges

摘要

This paper investigates the implementation of multi-scale numerical method for the analysis of the complex mechanical behavior of the steel cable anchorage system in self-anchored suspension bridges. A multi-scale model of the Taohuayu Bridge (THY Bridge in brief), which is the largest self-anchored suspension bridge, is developed based on the design drawings of the actual bridge. The software ABAQUS was selected to realize the multi-scale finite element modeling of the THY Bridge for the purpose of wide applications in civil structures. An experimental scale model of the steel cable anchorage system was manipulated and tested based on the prototype of the THY Bridge to verify the multi-scale numerical model. Two elaborate FE models, including a scale model and a full-scale model, are established for comparison based on conventional elaborate modeling methods. Extensive comparison study of the test and various FE models demonstrate that fuzzy region exists in the results of the test model, scale model and full-scale model, and the fuzzy region cannot be quantitatively determined, leading to unreliable analysis results and enormous try and error works. By employing the flexible BCs, which is a kind of generalized boundary condition proposed in the paper, the multi-scale model can accurately predict the complex mechanical behavior of the cable anchorage system. The multi-scale modeling method may become a popular approach to investigate the cable anchorage system by modeling the entire self-anchored suspension bridge in the future.