Form Finding and Aesthetic Design for Pylons of Cable-supported Bridges

Abstract

Pylons of cable-supported bridges are especially important components. They are generally large in scale and bear the main loads of the bridge, involving requirements both in structural performance and aesthetics. In this paper, a new form finding method for the pylon is proposed, with the use of bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method and the application of aesthetic rules. The principle of BESO method and the process for the form finding of the pylon are discussed. Pylons of the Hangrui Dongting Lake Bridge and the 3rd Panama Canal Bridge are used as cases to illustrate the proposed method. These two bridges are a suspension and a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1480 m and 530 m, respectively. The Golden-section and the Rectangle-division methods, together with the morphologic feature from local culture, are used to achieve harmony between the bridge and the environment. It is shown that the requirements mentioned above can be more easily achieved with the proposed method as well as some aesthetic rules.

Keywords:

• form finding
• aesthetic design
• pylons
• topological optimization
• cable-supported bridge

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Prof. Eugen Brühwiler for revising this paper and providing the photos of the Hangrui Dongting Lake Bridge, as well as to Professor of Eng. Yan Wenyou for providing the photos of the 3rd panama bridge.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of major theoretical and practical issues by Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Sciences (2020Z352).