A new mathematical explanation of what triggered the catastrophic torsional mode of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

The spectacular collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge has attracted the attention of engineers, physicists, and mathematicians in the last 74 years. There have been many attempts to explain this amazing event, but none is universally accepted. It is however well established that the main culprit was the unexpected appearance of torsional oscillations. We suggest a mathematical model for the study of the dynamical behavior of suspension bridges which provides a new explanation for the appearance of torsional oscillations during the Tacoma collapse. We show that internal resonances, which depend on the bridge structure only, are the source of torsional oscillations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.