Parametric study of repeating-unit arched truss bridges

Abstract

This report contains all the required elements of analysis of a particular plane truss. The plane truss in question is an arched-bridge truss that is composed of repeating unit cells. The report will include a parametric investigation that will take into consideration many parameters. The main idea is to relate local geometric characteristics of families of arched truss bridges to structural response and to summarize those results through tables and plots. The study will be partially verified by doing a number of cases using a standard structural analysis software (ETABS) and some analytic solutions and comparing those with our results. In order to facilitate the parametric investigation, Mathematica was used to create geometric generation and truss analysis programs and applets that will enable controlling the different parameters which makes generating the results (about 33,000 cases) much easier. Mathematica also aids by preparing tables and doing plots summarizing the results.