Effect of Tower Stiffness on Four-span Suspension Bridges

Abstract

In this paper, an analytic method for a four-span suspension bridge is presented using the deflection theory. The girders of each span are considered as simply-supported equivalent beams with axial tensions, and an iterative method such as the Newton-Raphson method is performed due to nonlinearity of the differential equations for each girder. And then, the results such as the deflections and bending moments of the girder under various load cases are compared with the finite element analysis for verification. Finally, parametric analysis for the stiffness variation of the center tower is performed.