Archived Computational Structural Mechanics Student Thesis Abstract

NUMERICAL MODELING OF STAY CABLES AND STAY CABLE BRIDGES

The Computational Structural Mechanics staff at TRACC is supporting two students from Northern Illinois University who are working for a Masters degree. The CSM staff is directing the thesis research and working with them on two projects: (1) cable-stay bridge vibrations due to traffic loading and (2) aerodynamic loading on stay cables. During this quarter, Srihari Vannemreddi successfully defended his thesis and has been awarded a Master of Science degree.

Abstract
Cable stayed bridges, especially long-span cable stayed bridges, have become more and more popular due to their strong functionality. Large amplitude of cable vibrations such as parametric excitation may occur because of the traffic load or wind load or for a particular combination of cable and deck frequency. The present thesis involves parametrically induced vibrations in stay cables and the effect of the live load on the long-span Bill Emerson Memorial cable stayed bridge. Numerical simulation has been carried out to analyze the parametric behavior of the cable by using cable-mass and cable-beam models. Finite element code LS-DYNA® has been used to analyze the transient nonlinear response of stay cables and bridge deck. Cables have been modeled by cable elements and seatbelt elements in LS-DYNA®. Analytical truck model is a combination of rigid bodies connected by springs and dampers and it has been used as a live load on Bill Emerson Memorial cable stayed bridge. Response of the cables and vehicle-bridge interaction has been observed for different velocities of the heavy truck models.