The Engineering Behind a Suspension Bridge

If you were to travel across the United States you would see numerous types of bridges. You would see truss bridges, arched bridges, box culverts and suspension bridges. There are also many forms of suspension bridges: cable-stayed, underspanned, self anchoraged, and simple suspension. This paper will focus on simple suspension bridges. Although suspension bridges are one of the most complex types of bridges to design, they allow for travel across large spans where other bridges wouldnt suffice. This is usually important in heavily traveled water ways where a long span is needed along with a raised bridge deck to allow for ships to pass through. There are 4 main components of a suspension bridge: the bridge deck, the cables and suspenders, the towers, and the foundation and anchorages. When analyzing a suspension bridge, two forces are present, tension and compression. Each component is either in compression or tension and works in conjunction with the other members to direct the forces into the ground. Suspension bridges are more suitable in areas that are more earthquake prone where sway may be required. The Golden Gate Bridge is an example of a simple suspension bridge and will be referenced throughout this paper to give a sense of complexity of suspension bridges.

Bridge Deck
The bridge deck is essential for a bridge because it is the component that allows for cars, mass transit, or even people to get from one end to the other. The bridge deck usually consists of a concrete slab roughly 8-12 thick supported by a steel truss frame underneath. The concrete slab allows for travel along the deck, while the truss frame gives the deck support and rigidity. This rigidity contributed by the steel truss frame is important when earthquakes or high winds impact the bridge because it allows the deck to sway a small Figure 1: Components and Forces of a suspension bridge amount but not enough to rip the deck from the suspender cables. Bridge decks of suspensions bridges are built off site and in sections. They are then transported to the bridge by barges and raised into place. The reason for this is because steel and concrete can lengthen or shorten with temperature change and this gives space for the bridge to adjust. If these expansion joints are not present in the bridge deck, lateral pressure can be exerted on the bridge deck and this can cause cracking and fracture of the concrete slab. The deck is usually constructed with a slight arc which allows for additional clearance.

Cable and Suspenders

The cables and suspenders have one function and that is to hold up the weight of the bridge deck. The bridge deck is relatively heavy compared to the cables and does not have the strength to support its own weight. There are 2 cables, 1 on each side of the bridge, and they span the entire length of the bridge. The cables are attached to an anchorage on each end of the bridge and run through the top of the towers. The cables are attached to suspenders which are connected to the bridge deck. The forces applied from the deck to the suspenders are mainly gravitational while having some live and dynamic loads (traffic). These forces act downward and pull on the suspenders and cables creating tension. This tensile force is then transferred into the columns as a vertical compression force acting downward or into the anchorages on either end of the bridge as a tension force. The cables are constructed of steel wires (roughly 0.2 inches in diameter) that are wrapped together in bundles. These bundles are then wrapped together into larger bundles and finally placed inside a large circular steel casing (this is the part you see). The Golden Gate Bridge has 61 bundles that consist of 452 individual steel wires giving it a total of 27,572 individual steel wires in each cable. The reason behind this is because if one of the smaller bundles fail, only a portion of the tensile strength is lost where as if the cable was one solid piece of steel and it fractured, all tensile strength would be lost and the bridge would collapse (this was the case in the Silver Bridge collapse).

Towers
Most suspension bridges usually have two towers that rise up much higher than the bridge deck and they transfer loads from the steel cables into the foundation. The Golden Gate Bridge towers are 746ft above the water and 500ft above the deck and carry a force of 61,500 tons each. The loads applied to the towers from the cables act downward and cause the tower to be in compression. Because the towers are in compression, they can be erected from either steel or reinforced concrete. Steel is strong in both tension and compression, while concrete is very strong in compression but extremely weak in tension. The towers are arranged in such a manner that the forces on each side of the tower from the cables are equal and this causes a concentric force which produces no moment. A concentric force is a force that acts at the center of gravity of a member and this causes the force to be purely axial with no bending involved. Because the forces are concentric and no moment (bending) is produced, the towers are allowed to be built as slender members.
Figure 2: Anchorage of Steel Cables

Foundation and Anchorages The foundation of any structure is the most important component of that structure. This is the component of the structure were all forces are transferred to before entering into the ground. If the foundation fails the structure fails. Suspension bridges are usually constructed over water and this causes the foundations underneath the towers to be a bit more complex. Soil underneath water tends to have a low bearing capacity (cant hold much weight) so engineers design deep foundations. One method consists of dredging out the soil until suitable soil is met and filling the hole with a concrete caisson. The other method consists of using pile caps. Pile caps involve steel and concrete. First steel piles (W-beams) are hammered down into the soil until the bearing capacity is met and then a concrete block is poured on top of the piles. This way the load is transferred from the tower into the concrete pile cap down Figure 3: Diagram of a Pile Cap the piles and into the ground. The Golden Gate foundations are 110ft deep into the soil. The only forces acting on the foundation is compression and generally concrete is used. Because the forces are so large the foundation requires a large base to help distribute the force over a larger area. The anchorages are similar to the foundation except they hold the force from the cable instead of the tower. These foundations are solely massive blocks of concrete with anchors in them that attach to the steel cables as shown in Figure 2. Each bundle of steel wire is attached to an anchorage so that the force is spread out more reducing the stress throughout; similar to what is done in the foundation. There tends to be a substantial pull-out force from the cables so the concrete anchorages need to be able to withstand the load without movement. The Golden Gate Bridge anchorages weight 60,000 tons each. Conclusion Suspension bridges are still present today but are continuing to vary with every bridge built. Different design techniques are being used that allow for larger spans to be met and less materials to be used. Although the bridge may vary from a simple suspension bridge, the four major components will be the same. The bridge deck is supported by the cables which in turn are supported by towers and anchorages and finally the forces are transferred into the foundation and dissipated through the ground.

References http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/bridge6.htm http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBDesign.php