Thermal effect on damaged stay-cables

Cables may suffer severe damage in cable-stayed bridges, leading to cable relaxation and tension loss. Such a damage effect merges in the sag augmentation or tension tightened by the thermal effect. This paper is intended to investigate the static response of damaged cables coupled with the thermal effect. With the introduction of three damage parameters such as damage position, damage degree and damage range as well as temperature parameter, the dimensionless governing equations for cables are derived and the numerical method is employed to solve the nonlinear equations. The static behavior of damaged cables due to the thermal coupling effect is analyzed, and the way to remove the thermal effect is given. It shows that the aspect ratio is the major factor is the deflection of the mid-span and horizontal force in the cable, whereas the angle inclination is the next important parameter. Cables with the natural length close to the chord distance reveal the highest sensitivity to temperature, whereas pre-tensioned and non-pre-tensioned cables are less sensitive to the thermal effect. It further demonstrates that with more damage included, the sensitive scope of the variation coefficient of the axial force with aspect ratio and temperature changes dramatically.