Steady-state solutions for a suspension bridge with intermediate supports

This work is focused on a system of boundary value problems whose solutions represent the equilibria of a bridge suspended by continuously distributed cables and supported by M intermediate piers. The road bed is modeled as the junction of N=M+1 extensible elastic beams which are clamped each other and pinned at their ends to each pier. The suspending cables are modeled as one-sided springs with stiffness k. Stationary solutions of these doubly nonlinear problems are explicitly and analytically derived for arbitrary k and a general axial load p applied at the ends of the bridge. In particular, we scrutinize the occurrence of buckled solutions in connection with the length of each sub-span of the bridge.