Determination of proper post-tensioning cable force of cable-stayed footbridge with TLBO algorithm

The pleasing appearances, economic and easy construction of cable-stayed footbridges (CSFB) have made them one of the most preferred options for pedestrian traffic crossing over the highways. The basic structural members of CSFB can be sortable as a foundation, pylon, deck, and stay-cables. The stay-cable has an important role in the formation of structural integrity by ensuring that the deck and pylon work together with the help of proper post-tensioning forces (PTF) applied to them. In this study, it is aim to determine proper set of PTF with the help of the developed optimization process which provides to work together metaheuristic algorithm named Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO) and Open Applicable Programming Interface (OAPI) properties of SAP2000 with codes created in MATLAB. In addition of this aim, the study also presents the importance of PTF for structural behavior of CSFB. TLBO algorithms use a randomly created initial population. The teacher phase and student phase are the main part of this algorithm. Five different proper sets of PTF are determined by using developed optimization process and the structural response such as displacement and internal forces of structural members of the selected CSFB compared with each other. Consequently, PTF directly affects the behavior of CSFB, as it ensures that displacements of deck and pylon remain between the acceptable limits, controls the distribution and magnitude of the internal forces for different load combinations. Furthermore, the evaluation of PTF might not have a single solution because CSFB are highly statically indeterminate so there are more different possible sets of PTFs that satisfy strength and serviceability requirements.