Investigations on seismic response of two span cable-stayed bridges

In this paper, cable-stayed bridges with single pylon and two equal side spans, with variations in geometry and span ranging from 120 m to 240 m have been studied. 3D models of the bridges considered in this study have been analysed using ANSYS. As the first step towards a detailed seismic analysis, free vibration response of different geometries is studied for their mode shapes and frequencies. Typical pattern of free vibration responses in different frequencies with change in geometry is observed. Further, three different seismic loading histories are chosen with various characteristics to find the structural response of different geometries under seismic loading. Effect of variation in pylon shape, cable arrangement with variation in span is found to have typical characteristics with different structural response under seismic loading. From the study, it is observed that the structural response is very much dependent on the geometry of the cable-stayed bridge and the characteristics of the seismic loading as well. Further, structural responses obtained from the study would help the design engineers to take decisions on geometric shapes of the bridges to be constructed in seismic prone zones.