Research on Mobile Platform for Main Cable Maintenance of Suspension Bridge

To address issues such as main cable damage during maintenance and difficulties in selecting traction anchorage points for suspension bridge main cable inspection platforms, this paper proposes a mobile platform for main cable inspection of suspension bridges. Through analyzing the problems and drawbacks of traditional main cable inspection platforms, and considering the structural characteristics of suspension bridges, this paper adopts a passive walking scheme and optimizes the anchorage points of traction steel wire ropes by fixing their free ends to the anchor beam connected to the cable clamp columns. A parametric model is established using finite element software Midas to study the platform's wind resistance performance and walking safety. Results show that this mobile platform for main cable inspection solves the problem of selecting traction wire rope anchorage points, with advantages including preventing cable damage, simple structure, and strong versatility. In finite element calculations, the maximum combined stresses of the carriage beam and hanging basket are 108.2 MPa and 40.3 MPa respectively, both less than 200 MPa; the maximum displacement of the hanging basket is 2.526 mm; the anti-overturning coefficient is 2.4, all meeting code requirements. This mobile platform for suspension bridge main cable inspection has good promotion and application value in main cable maintenance.