suspension bridge question (engineering)

==what is suspension bridge?

The entire bridge deck is suspended by main cable. At both ends of the bridge large anchors or counter weights are placed to hold the ends of the cables and supported by towers. The average span length range from 100m-1000m. Howver, the world most longest suspension is in Japan called the Akashi Kaikyo bridge. It has a span of 1,991m.

==what location should apply suspension bridge?

In areas where longer span distance required.

2008-03-28 23:13:29 補充：
==what is the adventage of the suspension bridge?
Easy to design- The main sustaining members, the cables are purely in tension, and are not required to be rigid, so they can be only as thick as needed to resist the tension.

2008-03-28 23:13:58 補充：
The towers are almost purely in compression, so their design is relatively simple.

2008-03-28 23:14:26 補充：
===what is the disadventage of the suspension bridge?

The nature of the suspensin bridge is only as rigid as the deck structure. It's flexibility becomes an issue before and after construction. The disadventages are:

2008-03-28 23:15:33 補充：
-During construction, the cables and towers may be susceptible to wind induced oscillations. Constructing the gaps betwee horizontal and vertical elements is a big challenge. (Becomes very expensive and hard to build)

2008-03-28 23:16:10 補充：
-After the bridge is built. There are lot of movement at the bridge due to resonance from areodynamic force from wind and periodic loads applied by pedestrians and traffics. Therefore this expensive bridge is not suitable for railway.

2008-03-28 23:16:30 補充：
===what cable system does suspension have?

The most common type is the Double Cable Suspension. Which means the bridge deck is suspended by cable on each side of the deck and the cables are anchored to towers.

2008-03-28 23:16:50 補充：
===what is reinforeced concrete??

Is a composite of reinforcing steel bar and concrete.

===does reinforeced concrete use in suspension bridge?

Yes, reinforced concrete will be used at tower, anchor and bridge deck

2008-03-28 23:17:12 補充：
===what other materials does suspension bridge use??

Most common used materials are: structural steel, reinforced concrete, steel cable, asphalt (for road deck).

2008-03-28 23:18:18 補充：
Sorry I have to break my answer into pieces. Yahoo+ said my reply exceed the maximun number :(