Interaction Analysis of Long-span Bridges and Traffic System Subjected to Earthquakes

Long-span bridges support a large amount of traffic every day. Even when an earthquake strikes, a long-span bridge often still has many vehicles present due to the low predictability of earthquake events. To study the seismic performance of bridge and traffic systems, a new full-response prediction methodology for the coupled bridge-traffic interaction system under spatially varying earthquake excitations was developed by capturing the interaction effects not only between the bridge and moving vehicles, but also between earthquake excitations and the coupled bridge-traffic system. Different from existing bridge seismic analyses in which only traditional earthquake loads in terms of inertial forces are applied on the bridge structure, the new formulation can also incorporate coupled earthquake forces on the bridge and vehicles, which are expressed as functions of the bridge-traffic coupling matrices and earthquake displacement inputs. The proposed methodology was numerically demonstrated on a prototype long-span bridge and traffic system under spatially varying earthquake excitations. Responses of the bridge and vehicles were predicted when the bridge-traffic system was subjected to earthquake excitations. It was determined from the numerical analysis that the coupled earthquake force, as derived in this study, has notable influence on the dynamic performance of the bridge and vehicles under seismic excitations.

• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=957
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/43903
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Colorado State University, Fort Collins

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Fort Collins, CO  United States  80525

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Chen, Suren
  • Zhou, Yufen
• Publication Date: 2019-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 45p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dislocation (Geology); Earthquakes; Long span bridges; Methodology; Numerical analysis; Seismicity; Traffic; Vehicle dynamics
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Geotechnology; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01714565
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: MPC-19-390
• Contract Numbers: MPC-483
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 26 2019 10:14AM