DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KAO PING HSI BRIDGE UNDER SEISMIC LOADING WITH FOCUS ON CABLE SIMULATION

The objective of this study is to thoroughly investigate the dynamic characteristics of the Kao Ping Hsi Bridge located in southern Taiwan. A one-element cable system (OECS) and a multi-element cable system (MECS) are presented for simulating the dynamic properties of the cables of the bridge. By a finite element computation procedure, the initial shape, modal, and seismic analyses are conducted for the bridge using either the OECS or MECS model. A hybrid method combining both the two-loop iteration and the catenary function is proposed to determine the initial shapes using the MECS model. Convergent and smooth initial shapes can be obtained using such a method. The results indicate that the OECS model can yield solution in an efficient way, whereas the MECS model should be used if solutions of greater accuracy are desired.