Simulation of Construction Process of Loukouni Bridge in the Republic of Congo

Loukouni bridge is a deck type arch bridge with box section and is a part of the second stage of the first national road project of the Republic of Congo. This bridge will be constructed with cable erecting equipment. To make sure its construction safety, three methods, including the zero moment method, the zero displacement method and the invariable cable method, were used to calculate the cable force of fastening cable and the pre-camber of main arch during the construction. Live and dead elements provided by the general FE (finite element) software ANSYS were utilized to simulate the construction of the bridge. The research result shows that both the zero displacement method and the invariable cable method can meet the construction demand in terms of the shape of the arch, the stress of arch section and the deformation of the arch. In the two methods, the invariable cable method is better and should be the first choice applied to the Loukouni bridge. The trial zero displacement method is a simple and effective way to obtain the cable force.