Experimental Determination of Dynamic Allowance for Traffic Loading in Bridges

Bridge codes adopt values for dynamic allowance in traffic load models that are necessarily conservative to cover for an entire range of bridges with different mechanical characteristics, boundary conditions, and the large number of uncertainties associated to the vehicle-bridge interaction problem. A further level of conservatism occurs due to the independent manner in which the governing static load and the corresponding allowance for dynamics are specified. In particular, certain bridges are not susceptible to high levels of vehicle-bridge interaction when loaded by a critically heavy vehicle or a critical combination of vehicles. Recent advances in Bridge Weigh-In-Motion technology allow not only to collect information on the weights, spacings and speeds of the traffic loads traversing a bridge, but also to separate the maximum static strain from the total measured strain using a filtering procedure. In this paper, maximum static and total load effects are collected and analyzed for three different sites as part of the European project ARCHES (6th RTD Framework Program). Bridge measurements are used to discuss the dynamics of the most frequent truck classes and the entire traffic sample. The measurements reveal a decrease in percentage increment in dynamics and a reduction on the variability of the dynamic increment as the static load effect increases. This phenomenon can be of particular relevance in the assessment of the dynamics of extreme loading cases.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gonzalez, Arturo
  • Dowling, Jason
  • O'Brien, Eugene John
  • Znidaric, Ales
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge design; Heavy vehicles; Static loads; Structures; Traffic loads; Uncertainty; Weigh in motion
• Uncontrolled Terms: Vehicle-bridge interaction
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01152343
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-0295
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 16 2010 6:13AM