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Curved girder analysis | Integral abutment bridges | Staged construction analysis

I95 Mississippi River BridgeStaged Construction Analysis

The I95 Mississippi River Bridge was designed to be a record-breaking, cable-stayed structure linking the States of Illinois and Missouri in the USA, helping to relieve traffic on existing bridges across the river. 

Designed by Modjeski & Masters for its clients Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation, staged construction facilities in LUSAS Bridge were used to model an 800 day construction period, continuing up to a total of 10000 days to allow for creep over that length of time.

Overview
Staged construction analysis is essential for many forms of bridge construction whether it be for modelling cable or hanger replacements for cable stayed and suspension bridges or for carrying out a detailed analysis of a incrementally launched segmentally constructed box girder bridge. 

Staged construction analysis with LUSAS provides you with the means to model the step-by-step construction of your structure over time and evaluate the effects of structural changes, load applications, and, if required, time-dependent material effects. 

With LUSAS Bridge, one model file can contain all of the information needed to carry out a linear or nonlinear analysis of every stage of construction. The effects of geometric and material nonlinearity, and time-dependent material effects such as creep and shrinkage can all be included within the one analysis run.


The image above shows just a few exaggerated deformed shapes of a beam and shell model used to carry out a staged construction analysis ( incorporating creep and post tensioning) to simulate the construction of the deck.

Features

  • Full activation and deactivation of elements supported
  • Support and loading facilities including temporary/traveller loads
  • Section property and material property changes over time
  • Time-dependent material properties include stress related concrete creep and shrinkage to CEB-FIP Model Code 1990, and include creep recovery
  • Steel relaxation, time effect on elastic modulus, tendon post-tensioning losses from creep, shrinkage, and superimposed loads
  • Modelling of cable and tendon stressing and slackening
  • Custom time dependent curves for particular material properties and codes
  • Cumulative effects can be reported separately for each loadcase, such as post-tensioning effects or the effects of just creep and shrinkage
  • Incremental effects can also be specified allowing you to view and assess the net changes to the structure since the previous stage.

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Any modelling and analysis capabilities described on this page are dependent upon the LUSAS software product and version in use.

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