DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN

YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

Xue-wei DUAN
2nd Design Department, BRDI, Wuhan, China

Key words: Half-through steel tied truss arch, design, analysis, anti-corrosion coating
system, steel truss installation

Abstract: The main bridge of Chongqing Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge is a

half-through steel tied truss arch with total length of 932m and a span arrangment of
190+552+190m. Its main span is 2m longer than the current span record of 550m of steel
arch bridge hold by Lupu Bridge in Shanghai. The Chongqing Chaotianmen Yangtze River
Bridge has double decks. The upper deck is 36.5m wide with six lanes and two sidewalks.
The lower carries two lines municipal light railways and two lanes to either side. The steel
truss of side span is installed by means of cantilever method with the assistance of
provisional supports; the steel truss in middle span is installed using sling pylon, by
cantilever method, closed at center of the span. This paper mainly describes the structural
design, static and dynamic analysis, anti-corrosion coating system of steel truss, and
installation procedures of the long span half-through steel tied truss arch.

- 409 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Chongqing Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge is located 1.2 km downstream
Chaotianmen in Chongqing, China. This bridge is an important passage connecting the
central urban business regions on both banks of the Yangtze River. Total length of the
bridge is 1741m, of which the 932m main bridge is a (190+552+190) m half-through steel
tied arch truss structure; the 314m northern approach bridge and 495m southern approach
are all prestressed concrete continuous girders.
The bridge has double decks, of which the 36.5m upper deck has dual three-lane and
sidewalks on both side, and the lower carries two lines municipal light railways and two
lanes to either side (Figure 1).

Figure 1: General layout of the main bridge (unit: m)

2. MAIN DESIGN CRITERIA

The bridge is located in a trunk road with I highway grade. The design vehicle speed is
60Km/h;
Bridge cross-section: dual three-lane on upper deck; two lanes on lower deck; sidewalk
width outside truss: 2×2.5m
Light rail standard: dual lines, line spacing is 4.2m; design train speed: 80Km/h～100 Km/h
Clearance of Light Rail: clean width ≥ 9.2m; vertical clearance over rail top not less than
6.5m
Design traffic load: traffic load as Highway grade I, checked with urban—A load;
Light rail load: Type B train, a train team includes five trains
Crowd load: the load value is 2.5 kN/m2 for purpose of general calculation, 4.0 kN/m2 for
local components analysis
Wind load: Maximum wind speed is 26.7m/s
Thermal forces: Max. Temperature: +45°, Min. Temperature: -5°; system mean temperature
is 20°, temperature difference considered as ±25°.

3. STRUCTURAL DESIGN
3.1 General layout and main structural characteristics
The main bridge is a three span continuous steel tied arch truss structure with a span length
of 190+552+190m and a width of 36.5m. The main truss with two pieces of truss is 29m

- 410 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

wide. The end span is a steel truss of variable height, and the middle span is a tied steel arch
truss. The height between the arch top and the middle support is 142m, the outline of the
lower arch chord is a quadratic parabola with 128m arch rise, and the rise-span ratio is
1/4.3125. The upper chord of arch is also a quadratic parabola transiting to the circle curve
of 700m radius on upper chord of end truss span. The main truss adopts “N” shaped truss of
variable height, the arch truss height is 14m at mid-span, 73.13m at middle pier(stiffened
chord of arch rib is 40.65m), and11.83m at end pier. Due to the big difference of arch truss
height, considering general arrangement and the aesthetic factor, the truss panels have three
lengths: 12m, 14m, and 16m.
Two levels of ties are set in the middle span, at 11.83m spacing. The upper tie is not
through the whole main truss and only connected to the lower arch chord; while the lower
tie goes through the whole truss including the middle chord at the stiffened leg and the
lower chord in the end span. The upper tie is “H” sectioned; and the lower tie has “王”
shape section assisted with cables. The steel tie end is connected to the lower chord panel
joints of arch rib, assistant cables to be anchored at end node of the tie. The function of
assistant cables is to reduce the forces of lower steel tie, so as to optimize the dimensions of
steel components.
The support system of main bridge adopts hinged bearing system. In longitudinal direction,
hinged fixed bearings are arranged at middle pier on north side, and movables on the rest
piers. In transversal section, fixed bearings are arranged on the middle support, and
movables on side supports, two transversal restrictions bearings are designed at the middle
of the lower crossbeam of side supports. The central transversal restrictions can make the
transversal displacement induced by thermal forces of main truss to both sides
well-proportioned, so as to avoid the rail deformation. The main bridge has spherical cast
steel hinged bearing system with huge capacity; the maximum bearing force for middle
support is 145000KN, which has the largest bearing capacity in China.

3.2 Main truss members

All of the main truss members are welded box section. To adapt the large inner force
variety of the chord, the height and width of chord members section are variable
correspondingly; the section width has two types: 1200mm and 1600mm, with section
height varies between 1240mm and 1840mm. The members are spliced at four sides; to
make the splicing convenient, the members has uniform height and width at splicing joints.
For a member, the height and width don’t vary at the same section.
To adapt well to different forces, the web members adopt “H” or “王” shaped sections. The
upper tie bar has welded “H” shaped section; while the lower tie adopts “王” shaped section
with assistant cables, four cables are set for each truss, each cable comprises 55 wires with
filling epoxy coating. The suspension rod adopts parallel wires cables. The suspension rod
has double hanging bars for the convenience of replacement.

3.3 Main truss panel joints

The panel joints of main truss have their particularities due to structural characteristic, so
splicing panel joints are preferred to reduce manufacture difficulty and save engineering
costs. However, the panel joints forces at middle support are very concentrated, and the

- 411 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

adjacent members have large dimension and thickness, so monolithic panel joints are
adopted here; splicing panel joints are adopted on the rest parts of main truss.

3.4 Deck System

The orthotropic steel plate is applied for upper deck and lower deck system. The steel plate
is 16mm thick, with closed “U”-shape ribs. Steel diagrams at an interval not exceeding 3m
are arranged longitudinally. The upper deck has six longitudinal girders in its cross-section;
the lower deck has two longitudinal girders respectively on each side, and transversal
girders to be set at main truss panel joints. Stringers and cross beams system to be adopted
for the light rail part on the lower deck, there are two sets of stringers at 4.2m spacing for
the light rail, each set of stringer comprises two pieces of stringers, plane bracing, and
lateral bracing. On the upper deck, sidewalk brackets are to be set outside main truss panel
joints, and “∏” shaped orthotropic steel plates to be laid on the brackets. The section is
shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Main truss section and bridge deck

3.5 Bracing system

The plane longitudinal bracings are set crosswise on the lower deck; “H” shaped welded
members to be used. The transversal steel girder on lower deck also functions as the strut of
lower plane bracing. The main truss width is larger than panel length, so the upper and
lower plane longitudinal bracing adopt diamond type, and the stiffened chord’s plane
bracing adopts “K” shaped type, to avoid small angle between diagonal members of plane
bracing. Because of some inclination existing between the adjacent plane bracing, the
gusset plate should be bended to adjust it. At the figure center of “米” shaped plane
longitudinal bracing, a truss transversal bracing to be set for each two panels of main arch
rib, to strengthen space rigidity of arch rib, and reduce the calculated free length of diagonal
rod. At the zone of stiffened leg, one truss transversal bracing to be set for each panel.

- 412 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

3.6 Pre-camber
The pre-camber of the main truss camber is set and adjusted in accordance with the reverse
deflection curve value due to dead load plus static live load. From the analysis result,
pre-camber is not necessary for the end span, the pre-camber for middle span to be set as
following: at the panel joints of stiffened legs, the transversal truss top should be
heightened; at the tie zone, transversal truss to be heightened, or suspension rod to be
shortened, or adjust centerline of steel members.

4. STRUCTURAL STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

4.1 Static Analysis
The structural plane analysis is carried out with SCDS 2004 developed by BRDI. The
analysis model is made only for main truss, taking account of members’ rigidity. Table 1
lists the main analysis results.
Table 1 indicates:
- in the double levels of ties, the lower tie plays dominating role, the upper tie force is
less than 30% of total tie force;
- under static live load, the deflection-span ratio (1/1730) at the span mid is far less
than the permitted value (1/750) in the Code. So we can make a conclusion that the
steel truss arch bridge normally has the bigger vertical rigidity, the structural rigidity
is not the vital factor in the structural design.

Max. force of members Tie force

Compressive
Tension force Upper tie Lower tie Assistant cable
force
kN kN kN kN kN
57138 88398 28209 56991 20000

Bearing force Max. deflection value

（one truss） under static live load
Deflection on Deflection on
Middle
Side support end span middle span
support
(absolute value ) (absolute value )
kN kN cm /Lp cm /Lp
9739 145000 16.6 1/1145 31.9 1/1730

Table 1: Structural plane static analysis results

4.2 Stability Analysis

The structural static stability analysis is carried out by space finite element method, by
means of software ANSYS. The calculation model simulates the space position, rigidity,
and mass of the structural members, the model’s border condition to be simulated as actual

- 413 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

support system after bridge completion. The structural static stability analysis results show
that the stability safe coefficient is 6.8 in bridge completion phase, meeting the
requirements in standards.
4.3 Dynamic Analysis
The structural dynamic analysis adopts the same model as static stability analysis; see Table
2 for main analysis results of the completed bridge.

Self-vibration
Self-vibration
NO circle
Vibration mode frequency
. frequency
(HZ)
(rad/s)
Transversal bending
1
of truss, arch 0.1978 1.2428
Longitudinal vibration
2
+ arch vertical bending 0.2756 1.7316

Contortion frequency ratio ε = f 11 f = 2.42

2

Table 2: Dynamic characteristics

5. ANTI-CORROSION COATING
The anti-corrosion coating for steel truss conforms to the coating system in Code The
Protection coating for steel railway bridge (TB/T 1527-2004). And the paint class, painting
layer, and dry film thickness in the coating system has been adjusted. See Table 3 for
coating system of the steel truss.
Coating Min. thickness
Coating item
No. for total dry film
1 Zinc Rich Epoxy 2×40μm
2 Epoxy MIO 2×40μm
Polysiloxane (for chord, tie)
3 2×35μm
Acrylic Aliphatic Polyurethane

Table 3: Anti-corrosion coating for steel truss

6. TRUSS INSTALLATION
The end span should be installed by cantilever method, on trestles and temporary piers.
First, two panels of steel truss to be installed on the trestles by means of tower crane beside
end pier; next, the erection gantry to be assembled on the upper chord of steel truss; then
the erection gantry install the steel trusses in sequence with assistance of temporary piers
from end pier to mid pier, by cantilever method. While installing steel truss, some balanced

- 414 -
 Duan: DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE OF CHAOTIANMEN YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

weight should be used on the end span to make sure that the stability coefficient is larger
than 1.3.
The steel truss of mid span will be installed by symmetric full cantilever method with the
assistance of sling pylon, and closed at mid-span. The steel truss will be installed first, and
then the arch rib truss and suspension robs installed step by step until the mid-span is
closed. The sling pylon is 100m high, having two levels of cable; the anchor points of
former cable are at 144m and 216m from the pier, back cable anchored at 166m and 178m,
the spacing between anchor points on the pylon is 2m. While installing middle span, weight
should be forced on the 48m region of end span to make the safe coefficient larger than 1.3.
The lower chord of arch rib truss should be closed prior to the upper chord.
After arch truss closed, the temporary tie should be installed and stressed, and then the sling
cables and sling pylon should be removed; erection gantry goes backward, the deck crane
walks on the upper deck to install ties and upper crossbeams in sequence until mid span is
closed. The upper tie should be closed prior to the lower tie; the provisional ties should be
removed after while. Then the deck crane goes backward from mid-span to install
crossbeam, plane bracing, and longitudinal girder of lower deck, and install upper and
lower steel bridge deck. To eliminate the effect of common-action of orthotropic steel plate
and main truss, some temporary connection between steel plate and crossbeam will be
made; the permanent connection should not be done until all members are installed
completely. The assistant cables are installed and stressed after all bridge members
completed. After bridge finishing, auxiliary facilities and pavement completed, the assistant
cables and suspension rob force will be adjusted to meet design requirements.

7. CONCLUSION
The steel girder of Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge was begun to install in Augest,
2006, the main arch was closed on January 18th, 2008, and the tie-bar was closed on May
18th, 2008. Now, this bridge project has entered the after-installation stage, and the whole
bridge will be completed by the end of 2008. Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge will be
the longest arch bridge in the world. Nowadays, there are more and more application of
steel tied arch truss bridges in China; the design and construction of Chaotianmen Yangtze
River Bridge can give valuable experience for bridges of the same type.

Figure 3: Photo of Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge

- 415 -
- 416 -