Research On Structural Behavior Of Timber Arch Bridges In Fujian And Zhejiang

The woven timber arch bridge is also called MinZhe timber arch bridge, whichsurvived in Fujian and Zhejiang Province. The main arch rib is consisting of twosystems, woven by longitudinal and transverse logs to form an arch structure. It canachieve large span in a special way. The conception of woven timber arch is ingenious,construction is convenient because the member is light and needs less processing. It isimportant cultural heritage in China. Ii is lacking that research on structural behaviorof timber arch bridge. Based on the investigation of timber arch bridge in FujianProvince, the Xinan Bridge as case studies, field test and finite element analysis werecarried out in this paper. The main work and conclusions are as follows:(1) It introduces the detailed structure of the MinZhe timber arch bridge and thestructure characteristics base on the structural engineering and bridge engineering,compared and analyzed the similarities and differences between MinZhe timber archbridge and BianShui Rainbow Bridge. The result shows that they are all the woventimber arch bridges, but the MinZhe timber arch bridge is better than the BianShuiRainbow Bridge.(2) The main structure parameters of timber arch bridge is redefined; Based on thefield survey of the timber arch bridge in Fujian Province, the timber arch bridge ofFijian province were statistically analyzed. Results show that most of the timber archbridges are single span, the span is between10m to40m and the longest span is37.6m.The width of the bridge is between4m to5m, the rise-span ratio is generally between1/5to1/7.(3) The load test of the Xinnan Bridge was carried out. The test show the structure ismainly under compression force, the structure characteristic is similar with the archstructure, it demonstrates that the woven timber arch bridge is arch bridge. Thestiffness of the timber arch bridge is enough, it is a good footbridge, the maximumstress is3Mpa, less than its design value, and the deflection is5.9mm in the middleof span, which is1/250of span in the design load.(4) Plane finite element calculation method is used to checkout the results HuanchengTang get by hand calculation. It shows that Tang’s method is feasible; it can be used in simplified calculation. The plane finite element model and Space Finite Elementmodel is established. Compared with the results of the load test, both of the model canbe used to analysis the structure behavior of timber arch bridge. In the simplifiedcalculation, the finite element model of mortise and tendon joint node can be thoughtas hinged.(5) Some research about the influence of the covered house of the bridge on structurebehavior is done. The results show that the covered house and some of the segmentdouble roof structure are beneficial arch structure, they can make the arch axis forcevalue increases, bend moment decrease. Introduction and discusses of the name oftimber arch bridge is given since it was discovered, according to the study, it issuggested that "China timber arch bridge" should be adopted.