Three-dimensional Visualization and Connection Assessment of Roofed Lumber Footbridges

Abstract

An installation of a covering, such as a roof or shell, can help a bridge become more durable and last longer. In Sweden, there is now just one historic covered bridge, the Vaholms bridge, despite the fact that other timber bridges have been constructed recently. Since the design of the connections has a significant impact on the structure's performance, wood can be considered a more competitive structural material for bridges than steel or concrete. Although connections are typically described as either pinned or fixed, their degree of fixation is really intermediate. Over dimensioning of the structural parts or the connections themselves results from failing to take the degree of fixation into account during the design process. The degree of attachment might be taken into consideration to minimise needless over-dimensioning. A 30-meter-long covered timber bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians is the focus of this master's thesis project. Flårback (2015) was responsible for the architectural and conceptual design of this bridge. The purpose of this thesis was to propose a bridge roof connector design of one kind. The experiment also sought to determine how the semi-rigid connection's rotational stiffness affected the bridge's structural behaviour. In order to accomplish the goals, the bridge was 3D-modeled using the Dassault Systèmes finite element modelling (FEM) programme Abaqus, and its performance was structurally analysed in both the ultimate limit state (ULS) and the serviceability limit state (SLS).