GRAPHIC PACKAGE FOR INFLUENCE LINES WITH OOP FOR CABLE STAYED BRIDGES

Abstract

During the past two decades cable stayed bridges have found wide applications, especially in Western Europe, and to a lesser extent in other parts of the world, They are increasingly being built for bridging - medium and large spans. Their increasing popularity may be attributed to - the economy of the total design and construction, case of maintenance and aesthetics. The modern cable stayed bridge consists of a super structure of steel or reinforced concrete members that is supported at one or more points by cables extending from one or more towers. The design considerations of a modern cable-stayed bridge includes - span proportion, stay geometry, pylons, deck, cable types and connections, loads and forces and structural anchorage. The purpose of this work is to develop a software for drawing influence lines for cable stayed bridges. The software consists of two parts - Analysis Software and Graphics Software. The analysis software is a general finite element based software, which may be used for 2D or 3D analysis or to generate influence line data by iteratively analysing the bridge under consideration, by moving a unit load along one of the girders. The influence line data generated is taken as input to the graphics software, developed in C++ using object oriented technique. The capabilities of the software includes - drawing of 2D or 3D views of the bridge, influence lines and loading considerations for any member of the bridge.