Extending the Benchmark Cable-Stayed Bridge for Transverse Response under Seismic Loading

An updated version of the ASCE benchmark on controlled cable-stayed bridges has been recently developed in the ANSYS framework. It includes new aspects in the relative transversal motion of the main girder with respect to the towers in the simulation of the stay cable dynamics with respect to the coupled motion of the main girder in the soil-structure interaction and the numerical formulation by assuming full geometric nonlinearities. Analyses are carried out in a multiple support framework in a time domain by using the earthquake records as collected from the benchmark original statement. The original benchmark configuration considered earthquake restrainers in the transverse direction. The proposed updated bridge model first reproduces this kinematic arrangement, and a new configuration with transversal releases is subsequently implemented. The control strategies consist of passive and decentralized semiactive systems working in the horizontal plane and are also those studied in a previous investigation for the original statement. When the devices are implemented in the transversal direction, the proposed schemes distinctively mitigate the transversal structural response of the bridge with reasonable efficiency.