Contact Friction Behavior Analysis of Spherical Hinges in Swing Bridges Using Finite Element and Meta-Modeling
Jiahao Wang1, Yuanxun Zheng1,*, Chaowei Du1, Shuaijie Zhang2, Xiangyang Chen3, Xiaojun Che4, Fuhua Wang5
1 School of Water Conservancy and Transportation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
2 China Railway Taiyuan Group Co., Ltd., Taiyuan, China
3 China Railway Seventh Bureau Group Zhengzhou Engineering Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou, China
4 School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
5 CSSC Sunrui (Luoyang) Special Equipment Co., Ltd., Luoyang, China
* Corresponding Author: Yuanxun Zheng. Email: 
Structural Durability & Health Monitoring https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2026.080081
Received 02 February 2026; Accepted 29 April 2026; Published online 01 June 2026
Abstract
Spherical hinges are critical load-bearing components in swing bridges, yet their complex contact friction behavior remains insufficiently investigated due to material and contact nonlinearities. Conventional parametric analysis based solely on finite element simulations suffers from low computational efficiency and limited consideration of multi-parameter coupling. In this study, a refined finite element model of an actual multi-lane swing bridge is established, and a support vector regression (SVR) metamodel is developed to efficiently predict contact stress distribution and frictional moments. Compared with existing studies that focus on single-factor parametric analysis, this work introduces a high-accuracy metamodel framework combined with global sensitivity analysis using Morris’ basic effects method and Sobol’ variance-based method. The SVR metamodel exhibits excellent predictive accuracy, with adjusted coefficients of determination exceeding 0.94 for all three characteristic indicators. Sensitivity analysis reveals that increasing the support radius significantly reduces maximum contact stress, while increasing swing weight linearly increases it; these two factors jointly dominate stress distribution. Additionally, decreasing curvature radius and increasing friction coefficient notably enhance horizontal and vertical frictional moments, with swing weight further amplifying these effects. The sensitivity rankings stabilize when the sample size exceeds 4000. This study provides an efficient and accurate metamodel-based framework for evaluating spherical hinge contact friction behavior, supporting design optimization and construction control of swing bridges.
Keywords
Rotating bridges; ball-hinged structures; contact friction characteristics; meta-modeling; sensitivity analysis
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