Highway Bridge Dynamic Analysis

The interest in the dynamic behavior of highway bridges has increased in recent years, due to the introduction of high-speed vehicles. Under loads of high speed, the bridges subject to large dynamic effects. Therefore, the demands on highway bridge structures are increased. The dynamic aspects have often shown to be the governing factor in the structural design. Generally, for all highway bridges induced by vehicle speeds over 200 km/h, dynamic analysis is required. A correct understanding of Highway Bridge dynamic is essential since a realistic prediction of the structural response contributes to an economic design of new bridges and to a rational exploitation of bridges in service.
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the dynamic behavior of an existing highway bridge, subjected to high-speed vehicles. The vehicle crosses the bridge at a constant speed and is represented by moving axle forces. Thus, no interaction between vehicle-bridge and no
Considering the influence of different bridge parameters, the damping of the highway bridge has great influence on the dynamic response. Generally, higher damping coefficient in the bridge structure gives lower response values. However, the peak values appear at the same speed, independent of different damping coefficient. The stiffness of the highway bridge is another important parameter, considering a dynamic response. The high stiffness of the bridge structure gives peak resonance values at high speed. It is crucial in designing a highway bridge that dynamic bridge excitation due to bridge-vehicle interaction is precisely measured. In this paper effects of some of the parameters which are found to have significant influence over dynamic amplification factor are studied and it is intended to develop more realistic authentic relation among these parameters and dynamic amplification