Structural behavior of cable anchorage zones in prestressed concrete cable-stayed bridge

Since the cable anchorage zone in a prestressed concrete cable-stayed bridge is subjected to a large amount of concentrated tendon force, it shows very complicated stress distributions which can cause serious local cracks. Accordingly, it is necessary to investigate the parameters affecting the stress distribution, such as the cable inclination, the position of the anchor plate, the modeling method, and three-dimensional effects. The tensile stress distribution in the anchorage zone is compared to the actual design condition by varing the stiffness of spring elements in the local modeling, and an appropriate position for the anchor plate is determined. The results provide elementary data for the stress state in the anchorage zones and encourage more efficient designs.Key words: finite element analysis, bursting stress, spalling stress, cable anchorage zone, cable-stayed bridge.