Stiffness Characteristics and Geometric Configurations of Cable-Supported Bridges

The structural stiffness is the ability of a structure to resist the deformation. It is an integrated index and is restrained by many factors. Realising the different effects of these factors on structural stiffness can make the structural forms more reasonable and more optimum. The concept of structural geometric configuration stiffness was proposed in this paper. The structural general stiffness was considered being composed of physical stiffness, section stiffness and geometric configuration stiffness. The stiffness characteristics during the evolution of cable-supported bridges can be discussed by the concept of geometric configuration stiffness. The cable-stayed bridges have stronger stiffness than suspension bridges because of the stronger geometric configuration stiffness. The evolution of the structural forms, especially structural forms of bridges is in fact the changing process of the geometric configuration stiffness.