• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

A study for the nonlinear solution strategies to predict the ultimate behavior of a curved PSC cable-stayed bridge with complex geometry and highly nonlinear characteristics is presented. The load and displacement control strategies are used and found to be stable for the nonlinear solution of the PSC bridge up to the moderately excessive load. The ultimate analysis of curved PSC cable-stayed bridge using these solution strategies is not converged due to the propagation of the cracks in the wide range of the concrete elements and excessive variation of the stresses in the concrete elements and cables according to the complex geometry. The load control strategy using scale-down of the unbalanced loads is proposed as an alternative method for the case that the solution is not converged due to the severe nonlinearities involved in the PSC structures like a curved PSC cable-stayed bridge. Through the ultimate analysis of the PSC girder, the accuracy and the stability of the proposed solution strategies are evaluated. Finally, the numerical results for the ultimate analysis of the curved PSC cable-stayed bridge using scale-down of the unbalanced loads are compared with those obtained from other investigator. The validity of the proposed nonlinear solution strategy is demonstrated fairly well.