Modifications of the stress-state of cable-stayed bridges due to staggered construction of their superstructure

In current practice, the effects of the evolutionary erection of cable-stayed bridge superstructure are rarely included into the simulation of its tensioning process. In fact, stay forces in service are usually defined in early stages of design, when the construction process has not even been conceived in detail yet. In order to fill this gap, the effects of the evolutionary erection of cable-stayed bridge superstructure throughout the tensioning process are studied in this paper. This study is focused on steel cable-stayed bridges erected on temporary supports. For the very first time a new criterion to include the effects of the evolutionary erection of cable-stayed bridges into the definition of the stay forces in the service state is presented.