Determination of suspender tensile forces in archbeam composite bridges for given design deck profiles using the force equilibrium iteration method

The determination of the suspender tensile forces in an arch-beam composite bridge for a given vertical profile of deck under its dead load is an important task. It will affect the overall design of the bridge. After the conclusion of some traditional calculation methods, a new method through iteration of the suspender tensile forces based on the idea of force equilibrium is presented in this paper. The interaction between the beam and the arch can be taken into account easily with the new method. Then the method is validated by a numerical example which is a concrete filled steel tubular arch-beam composite bridge located in Shaoguan of China. And the results indicate that the new method is simple and rational.