Antiseismic performance of the world's first high-speed railway suspension bridge

Abstract

To assess the performance of long-span suspension bridges in high-speed railway lines, their responses to complex loads must be determined. Thus, the Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge (WYRB), which is the world's first high-speed railway suspension bridge, is the research object herein. Based on the software ANSYS, the seismic response of the WYRB to different apparent wave velocity effects is calculated under the influence of the central buckle. Results show that different forms of the central buckle are conducive to controlling the reciprocating displacement between the seismic input lower cable and girder, which effectively protects the mid-span suspenders. However, the displacement response at the end of the girder is closely related to the apparent wave velocity. The smallest peak displacement is detected when the rigid central buckle is set under a low apparent wave velocity. The peak displacement increases with the increase of the apparent wave velocity, and the main part of the displacement response is the high-frequency component, which is unfavorable to the overall structure. The rigid central buckle has only a slight influence on the peak internal force response at the bottom of the tower. However, the high-frequency components are reduced.