Bridge analysis, design + assessment

Case Study

River Lune Millennium Bridge, Lancaster

  • cable stayed footbridge
  • linear and dynamic analysis
  • local analysis of masts

Whitby Bird and Partners, are the designers of the Millennium Bridge which spans the River Lune in the UK. The new bridge provides Lancaster City Council with a much needed pedestrian and cycle route into the centre of the town and re-establishes a crossing at the site of an earlier Roman and subsequent medieval bridge. Lancaster's history as an important maritime port is reflected in the masts of the new structure which are intended to evoke an image of ships docked at the quayside.

A three 'legged' structure, the bridge connects to two levels on the south side of the river. The main steel trapezoidal box girder deck curves around the 40m high tubular steel masts to meet an old Victorian railway viaduct and the aluminium gangway structure connects to the historic quayside. The bridge has a main span is 64 metres and a total length of structure of 140 metres.

3D static and dynamic analysis using LUSAS Bridge analysis software helped develop and prove the design. Bar and thick beam elements modelled the various structural members. Forces and moments were extracted from the beam elements and converted to give stresses in the plates to allow design to BS5400 Part 3. Eigenvalue extraction was used to check the suitability of the bridge with respect to wind and pedestrian excitation.

As well as performing global analyses of the structure a local model of the top of the mast was created using thin shell elements. Stresses caused by the six cables being attached to this region were obtained and used to further validate the design.

Steven Boyd, the Project Engineer on the crossing said, 'We find LUSAS to be a very useful design tool. We have confidence in the accuracy of the results that are obtained and good technical product support is available should we ever need it.'

River Lune Millennium Bridge

LUSAS model of structure

Animation of primary mode shape (greatly exaggerated)

"We find LUSAS to be a very useful design tool. We have confidence in the accuracy of the results that are obtained and good technical product support is available should we ever need it."

Steven Boyd, Project Engineer, Whitby Bird


Find out more

LUSAS Bridge

Software products

Software selection

 


 

Other LUSAS Bridge case studies:

Bridge at London Road, Hackbridge

 

Software Information

  Bridge / Bridge plus
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software overview
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Modelling in general
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Advanced elements, materials and solvers
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Load types and combinations
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Staged construction modelling
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Geotechnical / Soil-structure modelling
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Analysis and design
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Design code facilities
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Viewing results
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software customisation

  Bridge LT
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software overview

  Choosing software
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software products
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) LUSAS Bridge LT
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) LUSAS Bridge
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) LUSAS Bridge Plus
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software selection
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software options

green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Videos
 
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Case studies

  Application areas
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Footbridge design
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Movable structures
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Rail solutions
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Arch bridges
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Major crossings
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Soil-Structure Interaction Modelling

  Additional information
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Linear and nonlinear buckling analysis
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Curved girder analysis
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Integral or jointless bridges
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Post-tensioning
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Concrete modelling
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Interactive Modal Dynamics
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) LUSAS Programmable Interface (LPI)

  General information
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Hardware specification
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Licencing and Networking options
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Software prices
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Documentation
green_arrow.gif (94 bytes) Links page
 

Request information

 


innovative | flexible | trusted

LUSAS is a trademark and trading name of Finite Element Analysis Ltd. Copyright 1982 - 2022. Last modified: March 07, 2023 . Privacy policy. 
Any modelling, design and analysis capabilities described are dependent upon the LUSAS software product, version and option in use.