J. Construct. Steel Res. Vol. 46, Nos. 1-3, pp.

N-51, paper number 39, 1998

01998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: SO143-974X(98)000&6 0143-974X/98 $17.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER

Effect of Material of Deck on Response of Cable-Stayed

Bridges to Live Loads

Hany W. George’ and Kamal Hassan*

‘Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Structural Engineering, Ain Shams University Cairo,

Egypt
‘Prof. of Steel Constructions, Department of Structural Engineering, Ain Shams Univ.,
Cairo, Egypt

Paper Number 39
Full paper on enclosed CD-ROM

Cable-stayed bridges are the end product of a design and construction process
spanning many years and involving many people. All over the world, the
cable-stayed bridge scheme has proved to be an economical, efficient and
aesthetically appealing solution for medium and long-span crossings. Along
with the installation procedure and site conditions, the choice of the material
for the deck is one of the main factors governing the overall cost of the
construction process. The self-weight of the material of the deck has a direct
influence on the required capacities of the stays, pylons and foundations. It
is therefore necessary to analyze very carefully all the consequences of the
choice of the deck system in order to obtain the most satisfactory overall
answer. The effect of recent long-span bridge loads on the design of steel,
composite, and concrete decks is carried out. The Departmental standard BD
37/88 load as well as the different levels of the ASCE loading are implemented
in the study. These American and British bridge loads are founded on direct
observations of modem traffic conditions on long-span bridges. Three groups
of finite element models are prepared for the study. These three dimemsional
models are based on actual geometric and material properties of existing cable-
stayed bridges. The deck of the first group is in steel, while the second group
has a composite deck and the third has a concrete deck. The stiffness proper-
ties are similar for the three materials of deck. The nonlinear methodology
adopted in the study takes into account the effect of axial loads acting on the
deformed geometry. Geometric stiffness corrections are applied to take into
consideration the change of geometry and tensile forces of cables. This method
is implemented in a computer analysis program in which an iterative procedure
is used to handle the nonlinear behaviour of the structure. Several cable distri-
butions are implemented in the study. The number of cables in the central

50
 Effect ofMaterial of Deck on Response of Cable-Stayed Bridges to Live Loads 51

span is modified from 34 cables, 8 m apart, to only 6 cables spaced by more

than 39 m. Although the number of cables is modified in the different models,
however, the total area of cables is kept fixed in all the models of each group.
It is shown from the nonlinear analysis that the choice of material of deck
is greatly affected by the distribution of stays. It is shown from the results
that the design of steel and composite decks having a large number of cables
spaced very close together is mainly affected by the applied bridge load, while
the effect of dead loads is shown to be minor. However, when the number of
cables is reduced dead loads are shown to affect seriously the design of con-
crete and composite decks, while the effect of the applied bridge loads is
observed to be negligible. When the number of cables is increased, while the
total area of cables is kept constant, live load moments on steel decks are
significantly increased. This increase in live load moments is slightly reduced
in the case of composite decks. In the case of concrete decks, the live load
moments are almost unaffected by the variation of number of cables.
The study includes many figures that compare the behaviour of steel, com-
posite and concrete decks having different cable distributions when subjected
to recent American and British long-span live loads. The intensity of the
adopted live load is shown to seriously affect the choice of the material of
deck. When a heavy bridge loading as the BD 37188 HA or the AXE (100%
HV) is applied on traffic lanes of a composite or a steel deck, the resulting
maximum moment values are observed to remain constant for several cable
distributions. When a light bridge load is adopted as the ASCE (7.5% HV),
the maximum longitudinal moments of composite decks gradually increase
when the spacing of cables is widened. In case this light live load is applied
on a steel deck, maximum moments are observed to remain constant for all the
models which have a large number of cables spaced relatively close together.
In the case of cable-stayed bridges with concrete decks, the most economic
solution which gives the minimum longitudinal moments along the deck is
always the one having the maximum number of cables. However, when heavy
American and British long-span bridge loads are applied to the steel or com-
posite decks, the resulting maximum moments are observed to remain constant
for several cable distributions. Accordingly, it is concluded that when a light
steel or a composite deck is chosen, and a heavy live load is applied, the most
economic design is no longer the one having the minimum stay interval and
it can be obtained from many cable distributions having a variable number of
cables. 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

KEYWORDS
Cable stayed, bridges, nonlinear, bridge loads, steel deck, cable-interval,
tower, moment ratio, composite deck, long span.