Suspension bridge response assessment under temperature-vehicle combined loading: An analytical algorithm.

This article presents an analytical method for accurately solving the live load response of suspension bridges under combined temperature and vehicle loading. The method models the mechanical behavior of the main cable, pylons, and beam using elastic catenary theory and considers geometric non-linearity and the P-delta effect of pylons, converting the complex system of equations into an optimization problem solved via the generalized reduced gradient (GRG) method. Verified through a numerical example of a 1700 m span suspension bridge, the method achieves high computational efficiency (under 1 minute) and accuracy, with maximum vertical displacement errors below 0.6%. The study highlights that while the coupling effect of temperature and vehicle loads has limited impact on vertical displacements, it significantly influences beam-end rotations, underscoring the importance of including temperature-vehicle interactions and pylon deformation effects in suspension bridge assessments for precise and reliable predictions.