Evaluation of load and resistance factors for the reliability-based design of the main cables of earth-anchored suspension bridges

This paper presents load and resistance factors for the reliability-based design of the main cables of earth-anchored suspension bridges for the Strength I Limit State defined in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. Reliability analyses are performed for three suspension bridges in Korea with main span lengths ranging from 650 m to 1545 m, and the reliability indices and the Most Probable Failure Points (MPFP) of random variables are evaluated. The strength, load and stiffness parameters are taken into account as random variables. The advanced first-order second-moment method is employed to evaluate the reliability indices and the MPFP of the random variables. The elastic catenary cable element is utilized to discretize the main cables. Load factors are proposed based on the normalized MPFP of each load component considered in the Strength I Limit State. The resistance factor that yields the reference target reliability index for the main cable is found as 0.53. Two alternative resistance factors, which give lower and higher reliability indices than the reference value, are also proposed. The proposed load and resistance factors lead to a uniform reliability level for a main cable regardless of the length of the main span of a suspension bridge.