Articles

António Reis* DOI: 10.1002/stco.201110024

José J. Oliveira Pedro

Composite Truss Bridges:

new trends, design and research
Developments and new trends in composite truss bridges are reviewed, and recent de- mainly to overcome strict vertical
signs are presented for road and railway bridges. The structural scheme may range from clearance requirements over highways.
a continuous truss girder to a cable-stayed bridge with a double deck for both road and For road-rail bridge decks, a classical
rail traffic. option is a double deck made of two
Composite decks with 3D tubular triangular trusses for road bridges are discussed; de- Warren trusses in composite action
sign issues are outlined and some results for the elastoplastic redistribution of internal with the deck slabs. This was the so-
forces at ULS, based on recent numerical and experimental research studies, are pre- lution adopted for the Oresund Bridge
sented. between Denmark and Sweden and it
Recent designs of skew semi-through composite trusses, for High Speed Railway, are re- is proposed as Base Case Design for
ported in what concerns the dynamic behaviour under traffic loading and the stability of the new crossing of the Tagus River in
the compressed chord. The Base Case Design of a cable-stayed bridge, 540 m long main Lisbon [7].
span, with a double composite truss deck, for the new railroad crossing of the Tagus River
Truss decks with triangular cross-
in Lisbon, is discussed.
sections may represent the most effi-
cient composite decks, at least for road
and pedestrian bridges where fatigue
1 Introduction composite truss bridges may also be issues are not so critical. Some issues
adopted at negative bending moment may be raised about the redistribution
Composite truss bridges are one of regions. bending moment capacities of these
the most efficient and aesthetically A review on new trends was pre- trusses from the supports to the span
attractive design solutions in bridge sented by Reis [2], including double sections. The torsion behaviour of the
engineering [1]. Structural steel and composite action in continuous trusses triangular trusses, and deformability
concrete materials are combined in with variable depth as adopted for under eccentric traffic loading, are also
the most efficient way to highlight the the Nantenbach bridge [3], triangular issues deserving a detailing analysis [2].
art of structural engineering in bridge tubular deck bridges as adopted in
design. Composite action in trusses Switzerland [4], with very large over- 2 Design options and new trends
may be explored in a number of dif- hangs up to 6.0 m, and the Italian hy-
ferent ways, producing a variety of brid truss with full web systems [5]. Trusses in bridges have been adopted
design solutions. The most adopted Composite box girders may be adopted since the first generations of metal
and efficient solution consists in a un- for wide decks, up to 30 m or even bridges. However, in the last two
der slung truss, where the deck slab more, using struts to support the over- decades some attempts have been
acts in composite action with the hangs. These struts may be arranged made to implement different concepts,
compression chord. The concept only in a longitudinal truss, which partici- mainly related to:
holds at positive bending moment pates in the overall resistance of the – composite action with the concrete
sections; at internal supports of con- superstructure [2]. A different concept deck slab;
tinuous girder bridges, the deck slab is proposed in [2] for wide curved – double composite action with a
is under tension and no composite decks, by adopting two main vertical lower concrete flange at the inter-
action can be considered at ULS. Warren trusses and two inclined nal supports;
However, double composite action in trusses to support the overhangs. – composite trusses with triangular
The double composite action so- cross-sections reducing the lower
lution in truss bridges yields in the chords to a single tube;
Selected and reviewed by the Scientific
limit a box girder with a concrete – hybrid full web trusses (HFWT),
Commitee of the 6th European Confe-
rence on Steel and Composite Structu- lower flange, as adopted by the au- exploring the combination of a full
res, 31 August to 2 September 2011, thors for the cable-stayed bridge in plate girder with a triangular truss;
Budapest, Hungary Coimbra [6]. Truss decks with a rein- – main and secondary trusses, with
* Corresponding author: forced concrete slab at the bottom different arrangements at the cross-
antonio.reis@grid.pt chord level are adopted in rail bridges section for wide decks.

176 © Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin · Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3

Double composite action in truss
bridges has been already adopted for
long-span variable depth girders [3].
Composite trusses with triangular
cross-sections as in Fig. 1. to be dis-
cussed in more detail in the next sec-
tion, have been one of the most inter-
esting developments in the last two
decades. The overall shear deforma-
tions in composite truss bridge decks
at the internal support sections in-
duce relevant secondary bending mo-
ments in the chords and diagonal
members of Warren trusses.
The Italian concept of a hybrid
truss with full web system (Fig. 2) ex-
plores the combination of a full plate
girder at the cross-section axis, reduc-
ing shear deformation effects, with a
triangular truss to achieve enough tor-
sion resistance under eccentric load-
ings. The concept had been adopted
in road viaducts with spans up to
Fig. 1. Lully viaduct, Switzerland; half deck cross-section, design by Dauner
Ingénieurs conseils [4]
Fig. 2. HFWT deck system, Italy, design by REDESCO [5]
Fig. 3. Study of a composite truss for a curved roadway viaduct, Portugal;
cross-section and model, design by GRID
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research
40 m, achieving very low steelwork
quantities, below 100 kg/m2.
Main and secondary trusses may
be combined for wide decks namely
for curved bridges where an equiva-
lent box section is needed [2]. For a
curved roadway viaduct, with a con-
tinuous deck, 20 m width and 60 m
long typical spans, the authors have
developed a composite truss deck
(Fig. 3) with transverse prestressing.
The main and secondary trusses, sup-
porting the overhangs, are all Warren
type trusses.
Between the lower chords, a hor-
izontal tubular bracing is introduced,
forming an equivalent box type be-
haviour, under torsion. The chords
and diagonals are made of rectangu-
lar tubular welded sections, while the
lateral trusses are made of circular
hollow sections. Avoiding intermedi-
ate internal diaphragms for construc-
tion simplicity and aesthetics, one of
the main issues was the differential
displacement between main trusses
under eccentric loading. The second-
ary bending moments developed at
the transverse crossbeams, connect-
ing the upper and lower chords, were
investigated by a FEM and some re-
sults were presented in [2]. The at-
tained steel S355 J2 amount was only
128 kg/m2.
3 Composite 3D triangular truss decks:
Design and research
Composite trusses with triangular
cross-sections were proposed by Jean
Muller and were adopted by the first
time, to the authors knowledge, in
Roize bridge [8]. The concept was
spread through Europe, namely in
Switzerland (Lully viaduct – Fig. 1)
and in Germany (Korntal-Münchin-
gen bridge and St Kilian viaduct) [9],
[10]. The nodes, in these tubular struc-
tures, may be made by shop welding
between chords and diagonals or may
be cast steel prefabricated nodes as
shown in (Fig. 4). Nodes are designed
for ultimate and fatigue resistance un-
der static and dynamic loading. Mem-
ber chords and diagonal are mainly
subjected to axial forces, but secondary
moments needed to be considered
due to the rigidity of the welded con-
nections, namely for fatigue design.
Fig. 4. Welded nodes and cast steel
nodes for tubular triangular truss
bridges [9], [11]
Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3 177
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research

Detailed FEM for the stress analysis
under fatigue traffic loading models
may be developed.
Some issues may be raised with
respect to these triangular section
tubular composite truss bridges:
– The shear failure mode of the lower
chord near internal supports where
large equivalent shear forces in the
girder are taken as axial forces in
the diagonals (Fig. 5).
– The redistribution of negative bend-
ing moment at support sections at
ULS.
Fig. 5. Node shear failure: test at Tech.
Univ. Lisbon [12]
– The torsion stiffness capacity of the
deck under eccentric traffic loading.
Research on the behaviour of com-
posite bridge trusses with triangular
cross-sections, has been developed at
the Tech. Univ. of Lisbon under the
supervision of the first author [12],
[13], [14]. Due to paper length limits,
only the first issue is discussed. Two
tests were carried out for bridge
models (Fig. 6) at about 1/5 scale,
under two point loads to simulate the
evolution of bending moments be-
tween the support section S1 and the
mid span section S2. Loads P1 and
P2 were increased independently up
to the failure, accordingly to the fol-
lowing sequence: first, loads P1 and
P2 were equally increased up to the
plastic load capacity of section S1
and, then, load P1 was kept constant
and load P2 was increased up to the
failure load of mid span section S2.
In the first test, the ultimate load ca-
pacity at S2 was not reached due to
the small amount of reinforcement at
cross-section S1.
The theoretical load displacement
curves (Fig. 7) were evaluated by a
nonlinear analysis [12], [13]. The the-
oretical ultimate load in the 1st test
was about 16 % higher than the ex-
perimental one. The collapse was ini-
tiated by shear failure mode (Fig. 5)
of the bottom chord at support sec-
tion and then by buckling of the diag-
onals at this section. The amount of
reinforcement was three times in-
creased for the 2nd test in order to
improve ductility of section S1. The
steel diagonals diameter was also in-
creased, and the theoretical ultimate
load at S2 could be reached.
The theoretical values were P2u =
341 kN for P1u = 206 kN; the experi-
mental load values obtained were
P2u = 345 kN for P1u = 210 kN. The
theoretical and experimental displace-
ments at the mid span section were
77 mm and 72 mm, respectively.
The ultimate load and displace-
ments were the ones predicted by a
non-linear elasto-plastic analysis, but
as in the first test, the failure mode in-
duces the shear failure mode of the

Model H/h1/t [mm] B/b1/b2 [mm] Di/ti i = 1.2.3 [mm] Reinforcement [mm] Steel/Concrete
Test 1 570/409/70 1100/486/307 114.3/5; 76.1/5; 32/3.5 (φ5 + φ5)//100 fsy = 500 MPa fy = 320 MPa; fc = 48.1 MPa
Test 2 650/485/70 1300/500/400 114.3/5; 76.1/5; 38/5.6 (φ10 + φ8)//75 fsy = 500 MPa fy = 293 MPa; fc = 42.2 MPa

Fig. 6. Test bridge models at the Tech. Univ. of Lisbon [12], [13]

Fig. 7. Load P2 – displacement chart at mid-span section of Fig. 6 test bridge models [12], [13]

178 Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3


compressed chord at the support sec-
tion. As a conclusion, a total redistri-
bution of bending moments can be
achieved, what may be considered for
practical design at ULS, provided the
amount of steel reinforcement at the
support sections is sufficient for the
redistribution, and shear failure mode
at the bottom chord near the interme-
diate supports of continuous girders
is properly prevented. Shear failure
load of the bottom chord may be in-
creased by either raise its thickness or
reduce the gap between diagonals at
the nodes.
4 Semi-through composite trusses for
railway bridges
A semi-through composite truss of
Fig. 8, with a reinforced concrete deck
slab at the bottom chord level, is less
efficient than an under slung truss by
two reasons: the slab for simply sup-
ported spans, or at span sections of
continuous decks, is under tension
and the cross-girders induce trans-
verse bending of the diagonals of the
truss. However, semi-through trusses
are currently adopted in rail bridges,
since vertical clearances are quite of-
ten a main constraint for truss decks.
Low slenderness’s of 10 to 12 are cur-
rently required, not only to reduce
the steel amount in chord sections,
but also to satisfy deformability and
vibration requirements at SLS in rail
bridges. For High Speed Railways
(HSR) the limits for maximum verti-
Fig. 8. A semi-through composite truss railway bridge, design by GRID – general layout and peak vertical acceleration vs.
time for HSL Models at 430 km/h
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research
cal accelerations at the deck are only
3.5 m/s2 to guarantee ballast stability
under traffic. On the other hand, for a
very good or good comfort level, the
maximum allowable vertical accel-
eration are respectively 1.0 m/s2 or
1.3 m/s2. Deck vertical deflections up
to L/2000 and L/2500 for spans be-
tween 40 and 60 m under LM71 traf-
fic load model, is an indirect way to
achieve the limit of 1.0 m/s2 for train
speeds of 350 km/h.
For HSR semi through-truss
decks, SLS requirements are likely to
be the design control criteria. The
main issue is how to define the maxi-
mum vertical acceleration criterion
in the deck. Due to the deformability
of the slab, local vertical accelera-
tions resulting from the interaction of
the global and local vibration modes
of the superstructure, tend to be the
governing design criterion. The trans-
versal deformation of the slab may be
reduced by introducing steel stringers
connected to the cross-girders along
the alignments of the tracks. The lo-
cal vertical accelerations are then re-
duced, in particular in skew decks
due to bearing effects at the support
sections. In any case, the design crite-
rion for maximum accelerations of
3.5 m/s2 may be too conservative if
interpreted as maximum peak accel-
eration at any point of the deck. Since
it is a ballast stability problem, it ap-
pears more logical to adopt a design
criterion based on an average acceler-
ation after a few cycles or on an aver-
age acceleration at the deck cross-sec-
tion. Some proposals to control maxi-
mum accelerations in the track were
made in [15]. A criterion based on a
maximum acceleration of 3.5 m/s2
reached after a sequence of ten cy-
cles, looks more realistic.
A recent semi-through compos-
ite truss railway viaduct designed for
HSR adopted a slenderness, main-
span/distance between chord axes, of
13.5 (Fig. 8). The top and lower chords
are welded rectangular tubular sections
800 × 400 mm and 800 × 600 mm re-
spectively (plate thicknesses between
16 and 60 mm). Welded I sections
were used in the diagonals (plate thick-
nesses between 16 and 80 mm). Steel
S355 N or S355 NL was used depend-
ing on the thicknesses. The reinforced
concrete slab, 0.35 m thick, is sup-
ported by four stringers and cross-
girders at every 4.5 m.
A dynamic analysis was per-
formed for the High Speed Loads
Models (HSLM) specified in the Euro-
codes. The maximum peak deck ac-
celerations were usually obtained for
430 km/h. The study has shown a
maximum acceleration at the bottom
chord alignments of approximately
3.2 m/s2. However, the peak accel-
eration tends to increase to almost
5 m/s2 due to transverse cross-section
deformations. However, a criterion as
previously referred to – maximum
peak accelerations measured in a se-
quence of ten cycles, show an accept-
able behaviour.
Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3 179
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research

5 Composite trusses for cable-stayed

railway bridges

One of the main issues for railway

cable-stayed bridges is deformability
and vibration under traffic loading. In
Table 1 the main characteristics of rail-
way composite cable-stayed bridges are
presented. At this stage, only a few
bridges for HSR have been built. The
Oresund Bridge for two traffic rails
and the recently built Chinese Tian-
xingzhou Bridge with four traffic rails
are perhaps the most well known pro-
jects in this field. Both bridges were
built for combined rail and road traf-
fic and double decks were adopted.
The Chinese bridge has three planes of
stays and three trusses. With its 504 m
main span, it is presently the world
record for railway cable-stayed bridges.
A recent Base Case Design, the
so-called 3rd Crossing of the Tagus
River in Lisbon [7] (Fig. 9), may be
considered one of the most demand-
ing infrastructure projects in this area.
The total crossing includes a bridge
of about 7.3 km with three require-
ments for navigation channels – the
one near Lisbon requiring a main
span of 540 m. A cable-stayed bridge
for this main navigation channel is Fig. 9. The cable-stayed bridge designed for the 3rd Tagus crossing in Lisbon.
needed, as shown in Fig. 10. A variety Design by GRID

Table 1. Rail-road cable-stayed bridges built, under construction or design

Name End of construction Main span Deck type Deck Deck width/
Country Rail use type Total length suspension type cross-section depth/
Slenderness
Zárate-Brazo Largo I e II 1978 330 m One level 2 lateral steel box-girders 22.60 m/
Argentina 1 Light train 550 m Lateral with an ortotropic slab 2.6 m/127
Iwakurojima/Hitsuishijima 1988 420 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 29.1m/
Japan 2 HS Railway 790 m Lateral steel trusses 13.9 m/30
Kap Shui Mun 1996 430 m Double deck Composite box girder with 32.5 m/
Hong-Kong, China 2 Light train 820 m Lateral 2 interior Viereendel trusses 7.70 m/56
Øresund 2000 490 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 23.5 m/
Sweden/Denmark 2 HS Railway 1092 m Lateral composite trusses 10.2 m/46
Wuhu 2000 312 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 21.94 m/
China 2 Conventional 672 m Lateral composite trusses 13.5 m/23
Orinoco River II 2006 300 m One level Composite box-girder 24.70 m/
Venezuela 1 Conventional 1200 m Lateral with external struts 5.75 m/52
Tianxingzhou 2009 504 m Double deck 2 lateral + 1 central 30.0 m/
China HSR + Conv. 1092 m 3 planes steel trusses 15 m/34
Orinoco River III Under constr. 360 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 19.2 m/
Venezuela 1 Conventional 600 m Lateral composite trusses 12 m/30
3rd Tagus River Crossing Under design 540 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 30.2 m/
Portugal 2 HSR + 2 Conv. 1140 m Lateral composite trusses 11.6 m/47
Fehmarn Belt Under design 724 m Double deck 2 lateral Warren 28.7 m/
Germany/Denmark 2 HS Railway 2414 m Lateral composite trusses 12.9 m/56

180 Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3


Fig. 10. Span layout for the cable-stayed bridge of the 3rd Tagus river crossing in Lisbon. Design by GRID
of design options were studied for the
river crossing [7]. The retained option
was a double deck bridge, with six
lanes for highway traffic at the upper
deck and four tracks at the lower
deck – two for conventional rail traf-
fic and two for HSR (Fig. 9). A bal-
lasted track was the preferred option
of the Owner. What makes the struc-
ture unique compared to other simi-
lar projects [5], is the need to accom-
modate four tracks at the lower deck.
The project is presently suspended by
financial reasons.
The deck of the cable-stayed
bridge is a steel-concrete composite
Warren truss, with cross-girders at a
distance of 15 m, and constant height
between chord axes of 9.6 m (span/
depth ratio of 12.5). Chords and diag-
onals are made of welded tubular sec-
tions in steel S460 M/ML.
Fig. 11. Wind tunnel coefficients for the cable-stayed deck of the 3rd Tagus river crossing, wind tunnel test performed by LNEC
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research
Transverse bending moments in-
duced by the cross-girders and sec-
ondary bending moments in the main
chords are particularly relevant near
the support sections due to global
shear deformations of the trusses. Fa-
tigue resistance mainly controls truss
node zones. The stringers of the up-
per and lower decks participate in the
overall bending resistance of the cross-
section. The stays have a number of
strands varying between 47 and 109
strands of 15 mm each.
In what concerns the deforma-
bility of the bridge deck, the maxi-
mum static deflection under rail de-
sign traffic loading is about 1.0 m.
The vertical vibration frequency of
the deck is 0.31 Hz. A dynamic analy-
sis was made under the HSLM at
120 km/h (reduced speed at the prox-
imity of Lisbon) and the maximum
vertical acceleration was only 1 m/s2,
well below the 3.5 m/s2 limit.
The aerodynamic of the deck was
tested in a wind tunnel with a sec-
tional model at scale 1/70 (Fig. 11).
The results show a good aerodynamic
stability for wind speeds up to
292 km/h, which was defined as the
minimum required critical wind speed
for aerodynamic instability. The drag
aerodynamic coefficient, referred to
the depth of the deck, is 0.86 < CD <
1.14 for of wind angles between –5º
and +5º. The lift coefficient, referred
to the width of the deck, is around
–0.10 for the wind flow at 0º (Fig. 11).
6 Conclusions and acknowledgment
The aesthetic and structural advan-
tages of composite truss bridges were
highlight. Composite triangular trusses
Steel Construction 4 (2011), No. 3 181
A. Reis/J. J. O. Pedro · Composite truss bridges: new trends, design and research
were discussed; experimental and nu-
merical results were presented. Some
main issues for semi-through compos-
ite trusses for HSR bridges were dis-
cussed based on a recent design case.
A double deck composite cable-stayed
bridge for the 3rd Tagus River cross-
ing in Lisbon was presented. Special
thank are due to L. Salvador who de-
veloped the dynamic analysis referred
in 3. So to former Msc students J. Braz
and O. Videira by the experimental
studies reported in section 2.
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Keywords: composite deck; 3D tubular
triangular truss deck; semi-through truss
deck; bending moment redistributions
in composite trusses; composite cable-
stayed bridge; double deck
Authors:
Prof. António Reis, Technical Director,
GRID Consulting Engineers;
Professor, Dept. Civil Eng. – Tech. Univ. Lisbon,
Portugal
antonio.reis@grid.pt
Prof. José J. Oliveira Pedro, Civil Eng.,
GRID Consulting Engineers;
Assistant Professor, Dept. Civil Eng. –
Tech. Univ. Lisbon, Portugal
jose.pedro@grid.pt