Stress Ribbon and Cable-supported

Pedestrian Bridges
Second edition

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 Stress Ribbon and
Cable-supported
Pedestrian Bridges
Second edition

Jiri Strasky

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 Published by ICE Publishing, 40 Marsh Wall, London E14 9TP.

Distributors for ICE Publishing books are

USA: Publishers Storage and Shipping Corp., 46 Development Road,
Fitchburg, MA 01420
First published 2005
Second edition published 2011
Also available from ICE Publishing
Bridge design, construction and maintenance
Institution of Civil Engineers. ISBN 978-0-7277-3593-5
Current and Future Trends in Bridge Design, Construction and
Maintenance
Institution of Civil Engineers. ISBN 978-0-7277-3475-4
ICE Manual of Bridge Engineering, Second edition
Edited by G. Parke and N. Hewson. ISBN 978-0-7277-3452-5
Concrete bridge strengthening and repair
I. Kennedy-Reid. ISBN 978-0-7277-3603-1
www.icevirtuallibrary.com
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-7277-4146-2
# Thomas Telford Limited 2011
ICE Publishing is a division of Thomas Telford Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
All rights, including translation, reserved. Except as permitted by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the Publisher, ICE Publishing, 40 Marsh Wall,
London E14 9TP.
This book is published on the understanding that the author is solely
responsible for the statements made and opinions expressed in it and that
its publication does not necessarily imply that such statements and/or
opinions are or reflect the views or opinions of the publishers. Whilst every
effort has been made to ensure that the statements made and the opinions
expressed in this publication provide a safe and accurate guide, no liability or
responsibility can be accepted in this respect by the author or publishers.

Typeset by Academic Technical, Bristol

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe Limited, Chippenham
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 Contents Foreword vii

01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction 1
1.1. Eurocode 11
02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Structural systems and members 13
2.1. Structural systems 13
2.2. Structural members 23
03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Design criteria 31
3.1. Geometric conditions 31
3.2. Loads 33
3.3. Dynamics 34
04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cable analysis 41
4.1. Single cable 41
4.2. Bending of the cable 47
4.3. Natural modes and frequencies 52
05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Effects of prestressing 55
06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creep and shrinkage of concrete 63
6.1. Time-dependent analysis 63
6.2. Redistribution of stresses between members of different age 66
6.3. Redistribution of stresses in structures with changing static
systems 69
07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stress ribbon structures 71
7.1. Structural arrangement 71
7.2. Prestressed band 72
7.3. Piers and abutments 79
7.4. Transferring stress ribbon force to the soil 81
7.5. Erection of the deck 86
7.6. Static and dynamic analysis 90
7.7. Special arrangements 101
7.8. Stress ribbon supported by arch 106
7.9. Structures stiffened by external tendons 113
7.10. Static and dynamic loading tests 119
08 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suspension structures 127
8.1. Structural arrangement 127
8.2. Erection of the structures 134
8.3. Static and dynamic analysis 141
09 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cable-stayed structures 155
9.1. Structural arrangement 155
9.2. Erection of the structures 159
9.3. Static and dynamic analysis 164
10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Curved structures 171
10.1. Suspension of the deck on both edges 171
10.2. Suspension of the deck on an outer edge 172
10.3. Suspension of the deck on an inner edge 173
10.4. Curved stress ribbon bridge 175
11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Examples 179
11.1. Stress ribbon structures 179
11.2. Suspension structures 213
11.3. Cable-stayed structures 240
Index 257

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 Foreword I started my professional career in 1969, one year after Russian troops
occupied Czechoslovakia and ruined our hopes of a free and creative life.
Some of my colleagues decided to emigrate, while many others became
resigned and passive. I was lucky to have collaborated with engineers
who tried to prove that, even under difcult circumstances, we were still
able to develop and build progressive bridge structures. We were
supported by some professors who mostly had to leave the universities
because of their opinions and who contributed to our group of similarly
thinking people.

In the rm Dopravni stavby Olomouc we have developed our own

prestressing system and our own segmental technology for constructing
highway overpasses and viaducts. We have also built cable-stayed bridges
and more importantly designed stress ribbon and suspension
pedestrian bridges. These structures correspond to my design philosophy:
they are light and transparent, their structural systems express the
function of bridging of the site, they can be built without any inuence
on the terrain under the bridge and their dimensions have a human scale.
Although they were developed from one of the oldest structural systems,
they require a deep understanding of the structural systems, the function
of prestressing and structural material.

We have not only built these structures, but we have also veried their
function using detailed static and dynamic tests. We have also published
the structural solutions and results of the tests in outstanding technical
magazines and have achieved international awards. As a result of our
publications, I was invited to contribute to the design of the rst US
stress ribbon bridge that was built across the Sacramento River in
Redding, California in 1987.

Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a lot of things have changed. I

have started to work in the USA, my colleagues and I have launched our
own design rm and I have been teaching bridges at the Technical
University of Brno. For eight years I was a member of the presidium of
the FIP (Federation Internationale de la Precontrainte) that has been
changed to the b (Federation Internationale du Beton the
International Federation for Structural Concrete). I also had the
opportunity to participate in the design of large-scale projects in
California and Japan.

I am extremely grateful of the fact that my design work has allowed me

to become acquainted with many engineers who are not only outstanding
experts, but also extremely good and cultural people. Due to my design
work, I am now a member of a family of professionals who combine
technical knowledge with aesthetic feeling and who create bridges from
perfect structures. We build clean, economical and timeless structures
while protecting our environment.

I am grateful to ICE Publishing for the opportunity to publish my

experience in design and construction via Stress Ribbon and
Cable-supported Structures. First of all I would like to express my thanks
to my partner Ilja Husty for assisting with the design of our rst
structures, my younger colleagues for the effort to further develop them

vii

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 and to Professor Miros Pirner and Dr Marie Studnickova for assistance
with their dynamic analysis and tests.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the USA and UK, in
particular Charles Redeld, Bill Hall, Gary Rayor, Joe Tognoli and
Cezary Bednarski, for the opportunity to participate in their projects.
Thanks are also due to Dr Akio Kasuga for the opportunity to visit
Japanese structures and providing information on them.

In the book I present results of parametric studies and tests performed by

my former and present PhD students: Dr Radim Necas, Dr Tomas
Kulhavy, Dr Robert Broz, Tomas Romportl, Richard Novak, Ivan
Belda, Michaela Hrncirova, Petr Kocourek, Michal Jurik and Jan
Kolacek. It was a pleasure to work with them all. I also thank my
colleague Dr Tomas Kompfner for checking the text and Jarek Baron for
preparing images of our new structures. Most of all, I would like to
thank my wife Nada Straska for drawing all the gures and for her
support and understanding of my work.

I was delighted by the request of ICE Publishing to prepare a new edition

of the book, in which I have included the latest developments. It is highly
encouraging to know that there are engineers who nd my book
interesting and useful for their work. It is also heartening to know that
there are still designers who favour bridges whose beauty is expressed in
pure structural function and structural efciency.

Jiri Strasky

viii

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