Multi-rib Arch Bridge Strengthened by Stayed-Cable and Field Test

Abstract

With the increase of traffic volume and load, the carrying capacity of the early constructed reinforced concrete multi-ribbed arch bridges are obviously lower, it is necessary to take various measures to strengthen them and enhance bearing capacity of these bridges. This paper proposes a reinforcement method by adding cable tower at the two ends abutments of the arch bridges and the inclined cables to improve behavior of the multi-rib arch bridge. The main idea is that additional bridge towers are set on both sides of the single span ribbed arch bridge abutment to hang stayed cables. Taking a typical reinforced concrete multi-rib arch bridge-Baibu Bridge as engineering background, the design of strengthening project was given. The analysis and field load test of the bridge were finished. The comparison between spatial finite element analysis results and field bridge test values of strengthened bridge has good agreement. It shows the validity of the proposed strengthening method for the rib arch bridge and improves effectively the bearing capacity of arch bridges.