VSL STAY CABLES FOR CABLE-STAYED BRIDGES Preface Cable-stayed bridges are more and more ‘gaining in favour, firstly because they make possible the building of fairl large spars in ‘an economical manner and secondly on ‘account of the way in which they har- rmoniae with the environment and the im pression thoy create. The economics of ‘these bridges has in recent years impraved appreciably due to the technical advances Which have been achieved, especially in cable-stayed bridges of concrete, Road and rail bridges and alzo footbridges cen be constructed 25 cable-stayed bridges. In mary cases the bridge deck is of concrete, while in other cases, especialy (where the spans are very great, it i of stool. Composite gids aro also built. ‘An important element of 2 cablo-stayed bridge is represented by the stay cables themselves. These can be constructed in various ways. The success of cable-stayed bridges is, however, in no small measure due to the, use of high-strength steols for 1. Introduction 1.1, Historical development of cable-stayed bridge construction “The use of stay cables in bridge construc tion goes back to the 17th Century. As ear- ly as 1617, tre Venetian engineer Verantius sketched bridge with a number of in lined chains (Fig. 1. In 1784 the German. carpenter Loscher designed a guyad timber bridge of 32 m span with its superstruc- ture secured by wooden braces to s tower (Fig 21. The frst iron cable-stayed bridge was builtin England in 1817 by Redsath land Brow, with a span of approximately 33.860 m, wires being used for the stays (Fg.9). ‘Around 1821 the French architect Poyet made @ proposal for staying the bridge structure with Iron rods to the tops of high ‘towers (Fig. 4). He was one of the frst to propose a radiating arrangement of stay ‘cables. In 1840 the Englishman Hatley de- veloped the harp solution, in which the stays run parallel to one anather (Fig. 5). In 1883 Roebling completed the famous Brooklyn Bridgo in Now York, which is = ‘mixed system of cable-stayed bridge and suspension bridge (Fig. 6) ‘The system of guying with stay cables could not, however, be brought to satsfac- tory practical application unt this contury, because previously the knowledge of cal- {culation and the necessary qualities of ma- terial were not avaiable. In 1926 the Span- ish engineer Toroja consteucted a guyed aquaduct of reinforced concrete, the stay tho stays, especially in the form of strands which offer particular acvantages. ‘The main purpose of this document is to present the VSL Stay Cable Systern and its Use in bridge construction, The detailed design and building of cable-stayed bridges wil not be discussed in detail this being beyond the scope of this work. Tha rale- vant technical literature can be consulted for these aspects. Nor does this brochure deal with applications of stay cables in building constuction Ie. for roofs, tents, towers, giders aso} for which, however, the same stay cable system will generally bbe used as for bridges. ‘This report is clvidad into seven chapters, First of ll, the development of cabl stayed bridge construction, the arrango- ment of cable-stayed bridges and of the tables and the types of cable will be do- scribad in general. Some design aspects, amongst wiich the most important is the proliminary design of the stay cables, are then followed by the actual presentation of the VSL Stay Cable System The construc tion of the VSL Stay Cables, the tests ‘which have been carried out and the tech nical data are explained The services ‘which VSL is able to provide in this con- nection are also set cut. Finally, some bridges aloady constructed or at present under construction with VSL Stay Cables will be described and 2 bibliography and references are provided. The VSL organizations will be pleased to assist and advise you on questions relating to ceble-stayed bridges and hope that the present report wil be helpful to you by stimulating new ideas. providing some posters and offering possible ealtions, ‘The VSL Representative in your country or VSL INTERNATIONAL LTD, Beme, Swit- zeiland, will be glad to provide you with further information on the subject. Figure t Sketch by Verantius, 1617 Figure 3: King’s Meadows Bridge built by Redpath and Brown in 1817