Design and Application of Large-Scale Cast-Steel Joints for Special-Shape Bridges

Because of their excellent structural performance, strong plasticity, and attractive appearance, cast-steel joints have gradually become a new type of joint for long-span steel-pipe modern architectural structures. Landscape bridges whose shapes are especially attractive have emerged; many have new and unique shapes and complicated structures. Some large-scale steel-pipe intersecting joints are designed in such structures. An innovative approach is presented: the use of cast-steel joints as two large-scale pipe intersecting joints of a special-shape tower in the design of a landscape cable-stayed bridge crossing over an expressway. The design methods for cast-steel joints that can be used on similar projects are also discussed.