Development and Application of 12000t Spherical Hinge in The Construction of the Beipan Alarge Bridge

This paper describes material reserch, fabrication, installation and rotating operation of 12000t rotating spherical hinge used in the construction of a large bridge across the Beipan River. Under a load of 10000t, the spherical hinge rotated smoothly with a friction coefficient lower than 0.018. In the application data to model testing of 10000t class spherical bridge bearings is supplemented and reliability of the bearing is testfied.