Numerical Models used for The Calculation of The Cable-Stayed Bridge at Km 0+540 over Danube-Black Sea Canal

Cable-stayed bridges are complex structures and for their design, the traditional calculation methods are hard, even impossible to use for a global analysis. Separate analyses for the each component of the bridge in a simplified manner can be conducted, but in this case the concurrence of the elements into the structure is not taken into account, leading to errors in estimating the structural response. For these structures, the construction method and the presence of the stays, which are elements having a nonlinear behaviour, implies to consider a nonlinear staged analysis including the second order effects in order to transmit form one stage to the other the stress-strain state.

In the present time, thanks to the evolution and development of the calculation methods and computer analysis, cable-stayed bridges can be accurate analysed so that the obtained response is close to the behaviour of the structure during erection and later, in service.

The aim of this paper is to present the results obtained using one of the finite element models and nonlinear staged analysis of the bridge at km 0+540 over Danube-Black Sea Canal near Agigea. Inside the paper, results related to the evolution of stress-strain state in principal structural elements of the bridge - pylons, stays and deck - during the execution and in final stage, in service are to be presented.