Transverse buckling analysis of spatial diamond-shaped pylon cable-stayed bridge based on energy approach

The stability of cable-stayed bridges is an important factor considered during design. In recent years, the novel spatial diamond-shaped bridge pylon has shown its advantages in various aspects, including the static response and the stability performance with the development of cable-stayed bridge towards long-span and heavy-load. Based on the energy approach, this paper presents a practical calculation method of the completed state stability of a cable-stayed bridge with two spatial diamond-shaped pylons. In the analysis, the possible transverse buckling of the girder, the top pylon column, and the mid pylon columns are considered simultaneously. The total potential energy of the spatial diamond-shaped pylon cable-stayed bridge is calculated. And based on the principle of stationary potential energy, the transverse buckling coefficients and corresponding buckling modes are obtained. Furthermore, an example is calculated using the design parameters of the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, a 1176 m cable-stayed bridge under construction in China, to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method in practical engineering. The critical loads and the buckling modes derived by the proposed method are in good agreement with the results of the finite element method. Finally, cable-stayed bridges varying pylon and girder stiffness ratios and pylon geometric dimensions are calculated to discuss the applicability and advantages of the proposed method. And a further discussion on the degrees of the polynomial functions when assuming buckling modes are presented.