Study of Periodical Temperature Change Induced Deformation of an Inclined Steel Arch Bridge Exposed to Actual Environment Based on Synchronous Multi-Member Thermal Simulation

Structures exposed to the environment are affected by periodically changing temperature, and will undergo reciprocating deformation under the action of actual temperature. Steel structures are sensitive to temperature, and the effects on structure induced by changing temperatures are even more significant. The accurate calculation of temperature effects is very important to enable engineers to understand the state of a structure. However, the value of the temperature load in the current specification is set as constant, which can neither reflect the real state of the temperature field, nor its time-dependence in the actual environment. In this paper, an inclined steel arch bridge is chosen as an engineering example in order to analyze the actual temperature field of the structure in different seasons, and its deformation under the action of temperature, and the effects are compared with results based on other specifications. The comparison results show the synchronization of thermal deformation among different components and indicate the conservation of the specification. In order to further determine the most unfavorable situation under the effect of temperature changes, the deformation of multiple examples are compared, according to a standard load combination method, which verifies the feasibility of the load combination method in the calculation of temperature effects. It is found that the result can reflect, to a certain extent, the combined effect of the temperature changes of different components.