It’s not your
average bridge. Sutong Bridge in China’s Jiangsu
Province can claim the world’s longest cable-stayed
span – 1,088 meters – and the longest cables.
China’s Highway Planning and Design Institute (HPDI)
designed the bridge in cooperation with a consortium
of local and international consultants. For this
effort, the team relied on RM Bridge software and
the Bentley TDV team.
They faced extraordinary challenges due to
environmental factors and operational demands.
Through extensive analysis using RM software, the
Sutong Bridge can withstand earthquakes and a marine
monsoon subtropical climate – characterized by heavy
rains, fog, typhoons and tornados. In addition, it
can resist the impact of a 50,000-ton ship. Complex
hydrology and deep bedrock problems were solved by
pile caps resting on bored piles sunk into sandy
soils.
Sutong underwent sophisticated 4D analyses of the
structure’s dynamic behavior under many
configurations and conditions over time – in the
construction stages as well as the final stage. To
address large displacements, designers analyzed
geometric nonlinearities, from preliminary design
through detailed design.
Multiple investigations looked at the impacts of
heavy winds in all conditions of operation. A
“best-design” girder cross-section resulted from
bearing capacity and wind loading analyses. Using
RM, the team optimized distribution of cable forces,
minimized stay cable vibrations, and determined
stressing for proper cable tension at each stage.
Learn about
Bridge Information Modeling