This study, centered around the engineering context of the Wuxue Yangtze River Bridge, addresses the challenge of significant temperature-induced secondary internal forces in the short lower tower column. A novel open lower corbel tower scheme is proposed as a solution. Firstly, comprehensive finite element models are established for both the open lower corbel pylon scheme and the traditional lower continuous beam pylon scheme. These models are employed for finite element analysis to derive bending moments and displacements of the bridge pylon under various loads, including permanent, vehicle, temperature, and wind loads. Subsequently, considering internal force distribution and stiffness, a comparative assessment is made between the open lower corbel cable pylon scheme and the traditional lower continuous beam cable pylon scheme. The findings reveal that the open corbel structure bridge pylon exhibits lower transverse bending moment values under the influence of permanent load, vehicle load, temperature load, and wind load. This reduction is advantageous for mitigating the issue of significant temperature-induced secondary internal forces in the bridge pylon. Additionally, the transverse bridge stiffness of the open lower corbel cable pylon scheme is found to be on par with that of the lower continuous beam cable pylon scheme. Moreover, topology optimization of the original corbel design is accomplished using the relative density method. The computational results demonstrate that the corbel’s stress and deformation under vertical loads meet code requirements. These research findings offer valuable insights for the design and construction of similar projects.

In the paper experimental investigation results of three elements are presented. Two of them were made of reinforced concrete. The strengthened bracket had the steel accessory mounted to cracked loaded corbel (while it was loaded to half ultimate force of the reference element), the reference one was tested without any accessory. The third corbel was the steel accessory mounted to the concrete column. Full scale corbels were 450 mm deep and 250 mm wide, steel accessory was 320 mm high. The aim of the research was to verify the following thesis: short corbels (shear slenderness a_c /h ≈ 0,3) can be strengthened by a steel accessory. Load carrying capacity of strengthened member increased by 40 %. The ultimate force obtained for the steel accessories mounted to concrete column was 66 % of reference value. While testing some observations and measurements (strain of reinforcement and concrete, development of cracking) were made which allowed to describe corbel behaviour under increasing load.