A Robust Design of Suspenders in through and Half-Through Arch Bridges

It is well-known that in modern through and half-through arch bridges the suspenders are important components since they connect the bridge deck and the arch ribs. The collapse of bridge deck or arch ribs may be induced once one or more suspenders are broken. In this paper, the traditional design way of the suspenders in through and half-through arch bridges is discussed first. Based on the discussion, a new way to design suspenders for arch bridges is then put forward. The reasonability and robustness of this new way is proved by a numerical example based on a real through arch bridge using the comprehensive commercial software ANSYS. It can be concluded from the analysis in this paper that the new way to design the suspenders for the through and half-through arch bridges can assure the safety of the bridge effectively even though one or more suspenders happen to break.