With the increase of the arch bridge span, the mechanical properties of arch bridges will decrease rapidly. In order to solve this problem, triangular net is set between the arch rib and girder to form a kind of truss arch bridge in which arch rib acts as top chord, girder acts as lower chord, triangular net acts as web member, and hangers provide elastic restrains at several points. The triangle stability of the truss can improve linear stiffness of arch rib and girder, which will thus improve the mechanical properties of arch bridges. A test bridge with a span of 50 m was built to prove the superiority of the truss arch bridge with multi-point elastic constraints (MTAB). Structural stresses and displacements were obtained through dead load experiments, and the mechanical properties of the structure were calculated through the finite element (FE) software. It is turned out that, compared with the conventional through arch bridge (CTAB), the mechanical performance of the MTAB is greatly improved. The test values of structural stresses and displacements match calculation values well. Moreover, with the same steel consumption, the more layers of the triangular net, the better the mechanical properties of the structure.
In this study, a new type of deck arch bridge was proposed based on the triangle stability principle, and its mechanical properties were tested. The new deck arch bridge—named the superposed truss arch bridge—consists of main arches, auxiliary arches, a girder, and web members. These components adopt steel structures and are connected into a series of triangles to form a superposed truss structure. The new structural system design retains the advantages of the truss and arch structure. Additionally, the rise-span ratio of the main arch can be smaller in the new system design, so the rise height is smaller, which can decrease construction difficulty. The underlying mechanical principles of the new bridge were explained. A new type of railway deck arch bridge with a 650 m span was designed, and the finite element method was used to analyze its stiffness, strength, stability, and dynamic properties and the corresponding effects of the arch-axis coefficient, rise-span ratio, and span length on the mechanical properties. An experiment was carried out on a new deck arch bridge and a conventional deck arch bridge with the same span (10 m) to compare their performance. The results showed that the new deck arch bridge exhibited good mechanical properties while being inexpensive and easy to construct, which makes it suitable for high-speed railway bridges.
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