Optimization of cable forces on concrete cable-stayed bridges including geometrical nonlinearities

This paper presents a numerical method to compute the cable stays prestressing forces on concrete cable-stayed bridges to achieve the desired final geometry. The procedure includes a discrete direct sensitivity analysis module and an entropy-based algorithm for structural optimization. The structural analysis includes the most relevant effects namely the concrete time-dependent effects, the construction sequence and the geometrical nonlinearities. Numerical examples are presented and the influence of these effects in the cable forces is analyzed. The results show the relevance of considering these effects to find adequate values of the cable forces.