Analysis of the Temperature Field Effect on the Thermal Stress of the Main Tower of Long-Span Suspension Bridges

Abstract

To investigate the temperature field variation of the main tower of large-span suspension bridges, the Nanjing Xinshengwei Yangtze River Bridge was selected as the objective of the present study. The finite element model of the main tower was developed, and the analysis of the effect of the temperature field on the structure of the main tower was carried out. The calculation parameters of the temperature field of the main tower were determined, and the influence of the solar radiation temperature of the main tower within 24 h was investigated. Differences in the temperatures inside and outside the wall of the tower column were analyzed, and the thermal stress of the tower wall under the most unfavorable temperature difference was calculated. Results show that under the positive temperature difference, the area of tensile stress is mainly concentrated on the inner wall, the maximum value is located at the corner of the intersection of the tower wall, and the range of tensile stress is mainly diffused along the vertical wall. Under the action of negative temperature difference, the area of tensile stress is mainly concentrated in the outer tower wall, the maximum value is located in the upper part of the western outer tower wall, and the range of tensile stress is mainly diffused along the center of the tower wall to both sides. The maximum tensile stresses in the inner and outer tower wall are 2.8 MPa and 1.3 MPa, respectively, which meets the standard value of 2.85 MPa for the tensile strength of C60 concrete specified in the Chinese national standard.

Effective Notch-Stress-Based Stress Concentration Factors of the Rib–Deck Weld in Orthotropic Steel Decks Considering the Effect of Asphalt Surfacing

“…The cubic polynomial function was also employed to fit the results, as expressed by Equation ( 9), with a final correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.998. Taking the ENS-based SCF at 20 • C (i.e., SCF ENS = 7.173) as the reference, another amplification coefficient (k SCF2 ) was introduced to determine the ENS-based SCF at arbitrary temperatures of the asphalt surfacing, as expressed by Equation (10). The values of k SCF2 are plotted in Figure 7b.…”

“…For these purposes, several stress-based approaches have been widely employed, e.g., the nominal stress approach, the hotspot stress approach, and the effective notch stress approach [7]. The nominal stress approach is the simplest; however, the assessing accuracy is limited since the structure-related stress concentration is not considered [8][9][10]. Comparatively, the hotspot stress (HSS) approach has higher accuracy;…”