Influence of Initial Tension Construction Error of Stay Cables on Asymmetric Curved Cable-stayed Bridges

The initial tension construction error of stay cables can affect structural performance at service phase. Its impact on the structural response of asymmetric curved cable-stayed bridges needs further investigation. This paper establishes the stochastic finite element (SFE) model of a S-shaped curved cable-stayed bridge. The spatial force characteristics of the bridge are analyzed, and then structural responses analysis is conducted, considering the initial tension errors as random variables using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. The research reveals that the spatial force of asymmetric curved cable-stayed bridge shows an asymmetric characteristic in both tangential and radial direction. And the asymmetric structural behavior is mainly governed by structural asymmetric arrangement and the corresponding asymmetric cable force. The structural response of the main girder and towers is more sensitive to initial tension errors of the nearest cables. The asymmetric arrangement of stay cables, main girder and main towers causes the standard deviation and coefficients of variation (CVs) for structural stress and deformations to be asymmetric. As the error level of initial tension increases, the corresponding standard deviation and CVs for structural response increase, causes the decrease of structural reliability. The deviation for the initial tension error must within ±5% during construction stage.