Plane Frame Method for Plate-Truss Composite Structures with Monolithic Orthotropic Deck

In recent years, a large number of steel truss bridges with monolithic orthotropic deck have been built in many countries. For these plate-truss composite structures, using spatial calculation method to make primary design is time-consuming and involves a large amount of calculation. In view of the shortcomings of the spatial calculation method above, this paper suggests a simplified plane frame method (PF method) for plate-truss composite structures. This paper first proposes the concept of the Benchmark model, and then investigates and analyzes the longitudinal and transverse distribution of loads, as well as the simplified principle and the key points for computing the PF model. Finally, the authors build both Benchmark model and PF model by ANSYS for a certain plate-truss composite railway steel bridge. The analysis and comparison of the two models indicate that the PF model has enough accuracy to satisfy the primary design requirements which validate the effectiveness of PF model.