Design optimization of a steel bridge bracket

Abstract

Steel brackets have a renowned potential of being used in bridge constructions as a load-bearing element. However, the excessive material usage in bracket manufacturing will lead to expensive constructions, increased energy consumption and a rise in carbon footprint. To circumvent these challenges, this paper demonstrates a novel approach for producing an optimum and sustainable steel bracket for pedestrian bridge construction. Topology optimization is used as the tool of choice in this work, which has a proven record of arriving at the highest stiffness to weight ratio. This study uses an existing steel bridge bracket in Castleford Foot Bridge, England as a study case. The bracket is optimized under several volume fractions and ultimately, the optimum design is selected based on both simulation results and practical considerations. It is shown that a considerable amount of material could be saved without sacrificing the strength and stiffness requirement of the bridge bracket. Without a loss of generality, the selected optimal design is manually extracted to a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software for further post-processing and analysis.