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6-Branch Cast Steel Bridge Tubular Node
Verification of stress concentrations and plastic reserve in a heavy cast-steel cable-stayed bridge node under combined 2.4 MN spatial chord loads.
Cast steel hollow nodes eliminate fatigue-prone welded intersections in cable-stayed and arch bridges subject to severe cyclic traffic and wind forces. High axial forces transmitted between the through main chord, diagonal braces, and stay-cable stubs create complex triaxial stress fields at fillet transitions. The FEA model verifies that maximum equivalent stresses remain within the allowable design limit for quenched and tempered cast steel without local yielding.
1. Geometry & FEA Mesh
- •Thick-walled spherical cast node geometry joining Ø500×30 mm through main chord, two Ø320×20 mm spatial braces, and cable anchorage stub
- •Cast steel G20Mn5 QT (EN 10340) with elastic modulus E = 210 GPa, Poisson's ratio ν = 0.3, and yield strength fy = 300 MPa
- •Solid tetrahedral volumetric mesh comprising 58,571 elements and 18,083 nodes (54,249 active DOFs)
- •Smooth variable-radius transition fillets (R = 40–80 mm) at all branch intersections to suppress stress risers
2. Loads & Boundary Conditions
- •Fully fixed western main chord stub face (Ux = Uy = Uz = 0) balancing total axial thrust Rx = -2.4 MN
- •Axial tensile load NE = 2.4 MN applied to the eastern main chord stub face
- •Stay-cable tension T = 1.6 MN resolved into cable stub tension, brace compression (Nd = -0.78 MN), and transverse beam tension (Nb = 0.96 MN)
3. Simulation Results & Findings
- ✓Peak equivalent von Mises stress σ_vm = 225.1 MPa located in the branch transition fillet, leaving a 33% margin to yield strength (300 MPa)
- ✓Nominal stresses in tubular branch walls range between 155 and 170 MPa, confirming uniform load transfer through the cast sphere
- ✓Maximum structural displacement |u| = 0.733 mm under full 2.4 MN design load combination
WebCAE enables bridge design bureaus to verify cast node stress concentrations in browser WASM and native desktop solver without heavy CAD/CAE licenses. Rapid parametric iteration allows structural engineers to optimize cast wall thickness and fillet transitions, reducing node weight by up to 18% while guaranteeing fatigue endurance.
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