Induced Vibration of Suspension Bridges Traversed by Moving Vehicles

Abstract An investigation into the dynamics of vehicle-structure interaction of a suspension bridge traversed by a moving vehicle is presented. The vehicle including the occupants is modeled as a half-car model with six degrees-of-freedom, and the bridge is assumed to obey the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. Due to the continuously moving location of the loads on the bridge, the governing differential equations will have time-varying coefficients and hence, become rather complicated. The relationship between the bridge vibration characteristics and the vehicle speed is rendered, which yields into a search for a particular speed that determines the maximum values of dynamic deflection and the bending moment of the bridge. Results at different vehicle speeds demonstrate that the maximum dynamic deflection occurs at the vicinity of the bridge mid-span (±3%), while the maximum bending moment is found at ±20% of the mid-span. It is shown that one can find a critical speed at which the maximum values of bridge dynamic deflection and bending moment attain their global maxima.