PYLON SHAPE ANALYSIS OF CABLE STAYED BRIDGES

Sharath R1, Dr. R.K.Ingle2

1
Senior Design Engineer, L&T Construction, Chennai-600089, India
2
Professor, VNIT Nagpur, Nagpur-440010, India

Behavior of cable-stayed bridge is of great importance as the influence of moving loads, seismic and wind forces, on
the cable-stayed bridge mainly depends on its characteristic behavior. The structure is of nonlinear nature and highly
indeterminate. The analysis demands various elements of cable-stayed bridge to be modeled properly so as to
represent the actual behavior of structures as close as possible.
In the present work various aspects of Cable-Stayed Bridge is modeled using SAP-2000 Software. The work is
started with the basic model of two spanned symmetrical Cable-Stayed bridge. Analysis was done by taking six
different pylon shapes for dead load and live load conditions as per IRC-6 2010. Then the pylon shape which is
having better responses is suggested. After this, parametric study was conducted. The basic factors which affect the
design of cable stayed bridges are shape and stiffness of towers, areas of cables. In this study, it is intended to study
the effect of shape of pylons, cable areas with different cable layouts on the response of cable stayed bridges.
Further modal analysis is carried out to determine the fundamental natural frequencies of bridges with different
pylon shapes. The study is then extended for Unsymmetrical Cable Stayed Bridges also and appropriate pylon shape
is suggested.