# How Bridges Work 7, Exercise 2: how heavy must the anchorage be? # Each cable of the bridge in Exercise 1 ends in an anchorage that must resist the # horizontal pull H by friction alone (ignore the vertical component for this # exercise). The friction coefficient is 0.6, the required factor of safety is 1.5, # and concrete is 2400 kg/m3. For the three sag ratios of Exercise 1, find the # anchorage's weight in kN, mass in tonnes and volume in m3. Then repeat for # friction coefficients of 0.4 and 0.8 at the 1/10 sag. def h_pull(w, span, sag): return w * span**2 / (8 * sag) def anchorage(h_kn, mu=0.6, factor=1.5, rho=2400): weight = factor * h_kn / mu tonnes = weight / 9.81 return round(weight), round(tonnes), round(tonnes * 1000 / rho) for ratio in (8, 10, 12): print(f"1/{ratio}", anchorage(h_pull(60, 300, 300 / ratio))) for mu in (0.4, 0.8): print("mu", mu, anchorage(h_pull(60, 300, 30), mu=mu)) # Output when run: # 1/8 (45000, 4587, 1911) # 1/10 (56250, 5734, 2389) # 1/12 (67500, 6881, 2867) # mu 0.4 (84375, 8601, 3584) # mu 0.8 (42188, 4300, 1792) # # Output shows (weight kN, mass tonnes, volume m3) for each case. The size of an # anchorage is directly proportional to H: the flat 1/12 cable needs 2,867 m3 # of concrete against 1,911 m3 for 1/8, 50% more. The friction coefficient # matters as much: at 0.4 the 1/10 anchorage needs 3,584 m3, at 0.8 only # 1,792 m3 (the value of 2,389 m3 at 0.6, scaled by 0.6/0.4 and 0.6/0.8). # This is only a friction model: real anchorages also have to resist the cable's # vertical pull, and many rely on being set into rock rather than on weight alone.