Performance variations of a cable-stayed bridge with damaged cables

A cable-stayed bridge model was made based on the design drawings of Shandong Binzhou Yellow River Highway Bridge (BZB) and detailed model tests were conducted. In the tests, the cable damage effects on the loading behavior and dynamic performance of the bridge model were studied by considering different cable damages' locations, different numbers of damaged cables, and different damaged levels of cables etc. The experimental results revealed that the cable damages may significantly affect the internal forces of other cables and the stress distributions of the girders; however, they have less influence on the natural frequencies of the bridge model. In parallel with the model tests, a finite element model of the bridge structure has been established. Numerical analysis for the bridge model with cable damages was carried out to validate the experimental results and explain the phenomena observed in the model tests. © 2013 World Scientific Publishing Company.