Suspension structure with cross-laminated timber deck panels

Innovative suspension structure with prestressed cable trusses as the main load-bearing members was developed. Cross-laminated timber panels of the deck are placed to the bottom chords of the prestressed cable trusses. The structure with the deck panels placed to the bottom chord with the clearances and behaves in bending in the transversal direction only, and the structure with the deck placed without clearances and behaves in bending in the transversal direction and in compression in longitudinal directions, are considered. The suspended pedestrian-bicycle bridge with the span and width equal to 60 and 5 m correspondingly and loaded by the imposed load 5 kN/m2, was considered as an object of investigation. The optimization algorithm of the innovative suspension structure with cross-laminated timber deck panels was developed using the program ANSYS v12 optimization tools. Rational values of crosssection areas of suspenders, main load-bearing and stabilization cables were evaluated. It was shown, that placement of the deck panels without clearances, when the panels behave in compression in the longitudinal direction and in bending in transversal direction enables to decrease materials consumption by 25% in comparison with the case when the panels are placed with clearances and behave in bending in transversal direction only.