Experiment and analysis on ultimate behavior of bracing members of steel truss bridge in cyclic loading

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the ultimate behavior of the end sway bracing in a steel truss bridge. It is revealed that the buckling strength and deformation of the bracing member is very similar to those of the ompressed fixed support column by cyclic loading experiments using about half-size specimens of the panel structure of an actual truss bridge. It was also confirmed that the load-displacement hysteresis curve of the panel specimen was a spindle shaped loop. Furthermore, in order to perform a rational seismic retrofit design for the truss bridge, we proposed an analysis model using fiber elements and confirmed that the behavior of the experiment could be reproduced.