DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF CABLE-STAYED BRIDGES IN JAPAN

Masaaki Hoshino Professor

Department of Transportation Engineering Nihon University Funabashi-shi, Chiba, Japan

Fumio Nishino Professor

Graduate School of Policy Science Saitama University Urawa-shi, Saitama, Japan

Summary

Many cable-stayed bridges have been constructed in Japan during the last two decades and others are currently under construction. Among them, there are 10 bridges whose main span lengths exceed 400m. Six of these bridges are located in Tokyo, Ise and Osaka bay areas and the rest span islands of the Honshu and Shikoku.

In this paper the design and construction features of the sub- and super-structures of these long span cable-stayed bridges are reviewed to pinpoint the recent Japanese tends in the design and construction of the long span cable-stayed bridges.

13

1. Introduction

Some primitive, simple cable-stayed bridges supported by iron stays were built in the 1860's in Osaka. The era of modern cable-stayed bridges in Japan was initiated, however, 100 years later in 1960, when the first steel bridge of this type, the Katsuse bridge, was completed. Since then, the number of cable-stayed bridges has increased very rapidly, totaling to over 200 as of 1995.

Some projects are now in progress for the consolidation of the road networks which will integrate bay areas with the most densely populated hinterlands. In these road networks, a number of bridges are required, some of which are long spans of cable-stayed bridges with main span over 400 m (see Table 1 and Fig.1). In addition, as is well known, a series of bridges have been built and some are under construction between the Honshu and Shikoku islands. Along these routes are also four long span cable-stayed bridges, one of which, the Tatara bridge, will be completed in 1999, at which point, it will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Table 1 Cable-stayed bridges with main span over 400 m in Japan

Name Main Span(m) Location Year
CD Yokohama Bay 460 Tokyo Bay 1989
~ Tsurumi 510 Tokyo Bay 1995
® Meiko N ish i 405 Ise Bay 1985
@ Meiko Higashi 410 Ise Bay 1997
@ Meiko Chuo 590 lse Bay 1997
® Higashi Kobe 485 Osaka Bay 1994
(J) Hi tsuishij ima 420 Honshu-Shikoku 1988
® Iwakurojima 420 Honshu-Shikoku 1988
® Ikuchi 490 Honshu-Shikoku 1991
® Tatara 890 Honshu-Shikoku 1999 Most of these bridges serve as- highway bridges and only two Honshu-Shikoku bridges, i.e. the Hitsuishijima and the Iwakurojima bridges, are both for road and rail transport. One common feature of these long span cable-stayed bridges is that they are located over the sea and under them navigational fairways cross, which affect decisively the main span length and the height above sea level of the girder of each bridge. For the Honshu-Shikoku bridges, however, their main span length is determined mainly by the geographical and geological conditions of sea beds.

The Specifications for Highway Bridges issued by Japan Road Association are applicable only to bridges with main span length shorter than 200 m. There are no unified rules for the

14

CD Yokohama Bay

? short link L~ 2m

short link h L~2m ?

I Is :: 7. 7 (s) (natural per ioo of 9NOy mode)

~ Tsurumi I

i

auxiliary cables K~9 6O:l t1lm

I

Ts~ 3.1(5)

__ . 755

)---'-'-"-_-,-- --"05 ----, __

Q) Meiko Nishi

auxiliary cables K~II 000 tflm

cu xilicry cables K ~ 11000 tflm

Meiko Higashi

cuxi limy cables Kdlooo tfim

Ts~ 32(5)

aux.iliary cables K ~ 21 000 t flm

@ Meiko Ch u o

cuxil iary c cbtes K ~ 22 000 1 f 1m

L,/L,~23 h 1L,~ 0.23

Ll/L,~2·3 h/L",O.20

L,/L, ~2·8 h ILr-0.20

L,IL,~20 h IL,~O.25

L 34 J

Fig. General view of bridges and supporting conditions of girder

bridges mentioned above except for the Honshu-Shikoku bridges, for which specific specifications have been developed. The basic design concept of all these bridges is consistent with that stipulated in the Specifications for Highway Bridges, although some particular considerations are required regarding the stability of overall structure, earthquake resistant design, wind resistant design and so on.

2. Foundations

Only tower foundations are described here. As mentioned previously, all bridges are located over the sea, so their tower foundations need to be constructed under water. Usually a proper foundation type is determined after detailed investigations taking geographical and geological site conditions, construction costs, time required, and other relevant factors into account.

Pile foundations are most popular for relatively shorter span bridges in Japan. Due to the large bearing capacity required, however, caissons are preferred for the foundations of the long span cable-stayed bridges mentioned above, although some other foundation types are also selected.

In general, geological conditions in the three bay areas are relatively poor. The upper layer consists of soft alternating strata of alluvial clays and sands. Below this is a diluviallayer, under which a rock bed is located. The rock bed is often too deep for the bearing stratum to be chosen and so the diluvial layer was selected for the bearing stratum of some bridges( e.g. the Tsurumi, the Meiko Nishi and Chuo, and the Higashi Kobe bridges) In these cases consolidation of an clayey soil layer beneath foundations, which may cause low bearing capacity and undesirable settlement, was carefully taken into account in the design of the foundations. In contrast, the geological conditions of the Seto Inner Sea area, where the Honshu-Shikoku bridges are spanned, are comparably good. The bed rocks, which can serve as the bearing stratum for the tower foundations, are generally not so deep under sea level, although they are usually more or less weathered.

Three foundation types are used for the bridges: (1) multi open caisson, (2) caisson, and (3) concrete piles (see Fig.I), The first type has only been applied to the Yokohama Bay bridge and the third only to the Ikuchi and partly to the Hitsuishijima bridges. The second type, i.e., caisson is most widely used for the rest of the bridges.

Each tower foundation of the Yokohama Bay bridge consists of nine open caissons, whose heads are combined by a prestressed concrete footing (Fig.l,CD). The maximum length of the caisson measures 75 m. First, concrete barge was prefabricated in a dry ship dock yard, then towed to the construction site and set in place as exactly as possible using previously built jetty jackets as guides. The caissons served as working platforms during construction. The first section of the concrete caisson was prefabricated in a yard and towed to the construction site using tug boats. Then routine work consisting of excavating, sinking and concrete casting

16

began. After completion of the nine caissons, concrete was cast into the barge, which then served as a footing.

There are two types of caisson foundation: (1) pneumatic caisson, and (2) laying down caisson. The first type is chosen for the tower foundations of the Tsurumi, the Meiko and the Higashi Kobe bridges. The construction process of the pneumatic caisson was almost the same for all these foundations. First many steel blocks were fabricated in a factory, transported to an assembly yard, (generally located near the site but 650 Ian away in the case of the Meiko Chuo bridge) and assembled into a steel mantel with integrated reinforcements for the caisson body. The steel mantel was then towed and set in place using the jetty jackets. By casting concrete into the steel mantel, the caisson shoe reaches the sea floor. Then the routine work consisting of excavation, sinking and concrete casting began and continued with meticulous attention paid to the pressure in the working chamber until the final position was reached. The pressure was generally reduced by pumping up deep wells.

Through the laying down procedure, which has been developed specially for the HonshuShikoku bridges, sedimented layer and weathered bed rock are excavated, generally using the explosion method. Then the bed rock is smoothed using grinding machines. A steel caisson built in almost the same manner as in the case of the pneumatic caisson is towed to the site, either by a floating crane in the case of the single wall caisson or by tug boats in the case of the double wall caisson. When the caisson arrives at the site, it is set on the smoothed bed rock. Using a large plant moored near the caisson, underwater prepacked concrete is cast into the caisson. Concrete is cast in air, however, for the upper 8-9 m of the caisson.

The cast-in-place concrete pile foundations of the Ikuchi bridge are not uncommon in design and construction. One of the tower foundations of the Hitsuishijima bridge is a combined type of caisson and pile foundation, where at first a laying down caisson was built and then from the bottom of the caisson cast-in-place concrete piles were driven.

3. Superstructure 3.1 Girder

The ratio of main span to side span L21L1 is usually between 2.0 and 2.5 as shown in Fig.I. The ratio is larger for the Meiko Higashi, the lkuchi and the Tatara bridges according to the geographical and/or geometrical conditions.

The supporting condition of the girder in the longitudinal direction is one of the most important design factors because this may affect decisively the bridges response to earthquakes. It is now widely accepted in Japan that the effect of earthquakes is reduced if the natural period of the structure is long enough, although some scientists argue that seismic waves of long period must be included to take into account huge catastrophic earthquakes, which may cause undesirable large response of the structure with long natural periods. If girders were fixed to both towers and end piers, the natural period would become so short that a very large

17

response could occur during a large earthquake. In addition, a very high axial compression force would be induced in the girder in this case due to constraint during temperature change, which would result in a large bending movement in the lower parts of the towers. For this reason, the girder is connected elasticity to both towers and end piers in most of the long span cable-stayed bridges in Japan (as shown in Fig. 1 ), including the Higashi Kobe bridge, where a floating system was chosen. Hence the natural frequencies of the sway mode are between 2.3 and 7.7 seconds. In addition, very large longitudinal displacement of the girder is possible due to live loads or earthquake forces, and so additional devices such as vane type dampers are installed in some bridges (e.g. the Tsurumi and the Higashi Kobe bridges).

Prestressed concrete girders are used only in the side spans of the Ikuchi and the Tatara bridges, whose span ratios L2ILI are 2.8 and 3.3, respectively, to compensate the unbalance of the dead weight ratio between the side and the main spans. Steel girders, either boxes or trusses, are commonly used. Concerning boxes, the use of trapezoidal cross sections is common for aerodynamic reasons. Truss sections are only used for the bridges with double decks. The steel orthogonal deck are chosen for all bridges, although reinforced concrete deck is used in small parts of the side spans of the Meiko Higashi bridge with the span ratio L21L I of 2. 8 to compensate for the unbalance of the dead weight between the side and the main spans. Open cross sections, as used in the Knie and the Annacis bridges is scarcely adopted in Japan because of lower torsional rigidity and possible degradation of steel decks caused by salty sea water.

The depth of the box girders is about 3 m, as shown in Fig. 1. A grater depth is required to improve the torsional rigidity for the Tsurumi bridge which has a single cable plane.

3.2 Towers

The towers of the bridges referred to here are, without exception, also made of steel because of its smaller self weight, although the lower part was made of concrete on the Tsurumi bridge. An H-, A- or !3 shaped frame structure is typically used. The latter two types are preferable because of their large contribution to the torsional rigidity of the girder. The ratio of the tower height measured from the girder axis to the anchorage point of the uppermost cable to the main span length hlL2 is between 0.17 and 0.25 as shown in Fig.I, which differs only slightly from that of usual cable-stayed bridges.

Towers are proportioned to be flexible in the longitudinal direction so that they do not act as cantilever columns. The main task of the towers is to transfer the vertical force introduced through cables to the foundations. One difficulty appearing in the design of towers is how to check their stability. A definite design procedure has not yet been established, although some procedures have been proposed. Each member is subjected not only to axial force but also to biaxial bending moments, which makes the design very complex. An effective length is evaluated for each member based either on a simple consideration or more generally

18

on an elastic instability analysis of the overall structural system. Then the safety is checked against the buckling of each member according to the rule stipulated in the Specifications for Highway Bridges. In some bridges (e.g. the Higashi Kobe and the Tatara bridges) a nonlinear, elasto-plastic structural analysis was finally conducted to ensure safety against the total instability of the overall structure. Ultimate load carrying tests using a scale model are planned for the Tatara bridge.

3.3 Cable

A double plane multi cable system with fan pattern arrangement is commonly used for the bridges referred to here. This is because of its advantage for the erection of the girder, the resulting simpler anchorage details and its significant contribution to the torsional rigidity of the girder. For the Tsurumi bridge, a single plane cable system has been chosen for aesthetic reasons. When the second phase of the construction of the bridge is completed, the second bridge will lie parallel to the first. For the Higashi Kobe bridge, a harp arrangement was selected to reduce the displacement of the girder in the longitudinal direction.

Each cable is composed of one or two prefabricated parallel wire strands in a polyethylene casing. While in the Meiko Nishi bridge a wire of 1> 5 mm was used, a wire of 1> 7 mm is usual for the other bridges constructed later. In the Meiko Nishi, the Hitsuishijima and the Iwakurojima bridges, cement mortar or polybutasylene resin was filled into the casing for corrosion protection. In the other bridges long lay cables of non grout type are used.

The maximum strand used is 1> 7x477 of the Tsurumi bridge. The safety factor of cables against the ultimate strength has been reduced from 3.0 to 2.5 according to the new revision of the Specifications for Highway Bridges issued in 1990.

4. Earthquake Resistance

As is well known, seismic activity is very acute in Japan. The effect of earthquakes is one of the main considerations in the design of cable-stayed bridges, particularly in the design of towers and foundations. A conventional static design method based on the seismic coefficient is usually sufficient for the design and construction of shorter bridges. However, special care should be taken for long span cable-stayed bridges regarding their dynamic behavior and the specific seismic activity in the construction site. It was a common practice to neglect the effect of vertical acceleration. However, it is said now that this effect may play an important role and should be considered in the design of bridges. This subject is being discussed widely in Japan.

In general, there are three methods used for earthquake resistant design of long span cable-stayed bridges. They are,

a) static method based on a modified seismic coefficient,

b) response spectrum method, and

19

c) time history method.

For almost all cable-stayed bridges considered here all three methods are applied, but the latter two methods, which can be categorized as "dynamic method" are of particular importance. For the response spectrum method, it is a difficult but important task to make an adequate, reliable acceleration response spectrum taking the seismic activity based on the earthquake records in the past, geological site conditions, and so on into account. For the Honshu-Shikoku bridges, a common spectrum is stipulated in the relevant specification. Response spectra used for the design of the bridges are shown in Fig 2. They reflect not only site conditions but also the development of earthquake resistant design in Japan.

o / .. '<N : ii'·

~ -, <1"-11 \ \il i

o .1'- .. -1~i , ,:

~100~--------~--t---~~~·\~~

g -- (DYokohama Bay -, .. t~~

~ 50 (Z) T - "\\. ...

§ --_. (a~~~~;~base) 1'''.,11 ~

0. (DMeiko Nishi I I I , ",

~ I ,.

0: ..... [ 4 ~::~~ ~~G~i I .,' :1' :, ':"

Hi ashi Kobe

Honshu-Shikoku I : I : I \ ! . : i

I 00L1--_L___!___L~O.';o-5 LLl-'-;-1 --_L--'---"5':-'-~1' 0

Natura! periodts)

Fig. 2 Response spectra for superstructures

For the time history method, it is important to get an adequate earthquake acceleration record, which can be established using one of the following records,

a) records taken at a place having similar geographical and geological conditions to those of the construction site,

b) records obtained under consideration of the geological conditions of the construction site from appropriate strong motion records taken at different places, which were converted to the appropriate earthquake motion -on the bed rock under consideration of the geological conditions at that place, and

c) records modified to be compatible with the response spectrum designated to the bridge considered.

For the dynamic analysis a superstructure and foundations are sometimes treated independently, but more generally a structural system including girders, cables, and towers, foundations but excluding surrounding soil is used. There are several issues to be investigated further with regard to the dynamic analysis. They are,

a) the effect of the vertical acceleration,

20

b) how to get an adequate strong motion record,

c) phase differences at various supporting points,

d) magnitude of damping coefficient,

e) how to superpose the responses in the longitudinal and the transverse directions, and

f) how to superpose responses of each mode in the case of the modal analysis.

It is noted that experimental tests using shaking tables were also performed in some bridges(e.g. the Yokohama Bay, the Tsurumi and the Higashi Kobe bridges).

5. Wind Resistance

Aerodynamic stability is a very important design factor for long span cable-stayed bridges in Japan, where very strong winds caused by typhoons are to be expected. Although catastrophic disasters occurring in some suspension bridges such as the Tacoma Narrows bridge have not yet occurred, problems caused by aerodynamic wind effects have been observed in some cable-stayed bridges in Japan and similar bridges elsewhere in the world.

Since a lot of long span cable-stayed bridges have been constructed in Japan, a number of experimental and analytical investigations have been performed on this subject. Based on the experience and the results obtained from these investigations, a design manual for the wind resistant design of highway bridges, including suspension and cable-stayed bridges, was issued by the Japan Road Association in 1991. A procedure to ensure the aerodynamic stability of highway bridges has been established. However, it was and is still common practice to confirm the aerodynamic stability of long span cable-stayed bridges making use of wind tunnel tests, i.e. a sectional model test and/or a full aeroelastic model tests, which would be generally required if the above design manual were obeyed. That is also the case for all bridges considered here.

Aerodynamic stability should be checked for girders, towers and cables, respectively.

Flutter and vortex shedding vibrations are most critical for box girders. In Particular the torsional flutter was a very serious problem for the Tsurumi bridge because of its relatively lower torsional rigidity due to its single plane cable system. Its twin parallel bridge system also affects the aerodynamic stability of the bridge, as is the case with the Meiko Nishi bridge.

Tab 1 e Z Bas i c des i gn wind speed VlO (m/s)

Name Yokohama Tsurumi Heiko Nishi Heiko Higashi Meiko Chuo
Vl0 42 43 37 44 44 Higashi Kobe Hitsuishijima lwakurojima

lkuchi

Tatara

40 43 43

37

37

Safety against flutter is usually ensured by keeping the safety factor 1.2 against the design wind speed, which is to be derived from the basic design speed V 10 The basic design

21

speed VIO. of the bridges referred to here is summarized in Table 2.

The aerodynamic stability of a tower is particularly important for an isolated situation during erection, although this was also fully investigated after completion of the Yokohama Bay and the Higashi Kobe bridges. In some bridges, such as the Yokohama Bay, the Tsurumi, the Meiko Nishi and the Higashi Kobe bridges, TMDs (tuned mass damper) were installed to prevent large oscillation during erection of the tower. Four corners of the tower shafts of the Higashi Kobe bridge were cut off and an octagonal section was used for each tower shaft of the Meiko Chuo bridge to suppress wind-induced vibration.

Undesirable vibrations were observed in the cables of the Meiko Nishi, the Hitsuishijima and the Iwakurojima bridges after their completion. Cross ties were fitted between cables to suppress the vibrations. This vibration phenomena was especially noticeable during rain and so it has been termed rain vibration. Some effective, preventive measures against such vibration were taken for the recently completed bridges. Cables with specially notched surface were used on the Higashi Kobe bridge, as shown in Fig.3-a. On the Yokohama Bay bridge, two parallel cables are connected using special devices (Fig.3-b). Mechanical dampers will be installed in the Tsurumi bridge if undesirable vibration is observed after completion.

o

a. Higashi Kobe b. Yokohama Bay

Fig. 3 Cable section

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their thanks to the Metropolitan Expressway Public Corporation, the Japan Highway Public Corporation, the Hanshin Expressway Highway Public Corporation, and the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority for providing valuable information.

22