Practical advanced analysis and design of three-dimensional truss bridges

A new design method of three-dimensional truss bridges using practical advanced analysis is presented. Separate member capacity checks encompassed by the code specifications are not required, because the stability of separate members and the structure as a whole can be rigorously treated in determing the maximum strength of the structures. The geometric nonlinearity is considered using the updated Lagrangian formulation. The material nonlinearity is implemented using Column Research Council (CRC) tangent modulus. Result verifications are performed by comparison with the results from a step by step analysis. The load-deflection behavior of the truss shows a good agreement with the step by step analysis results. A case study is performed on a truss bridge. The analysis results show that the proposed method is suitable for adoption in practice.