Energy-based additional damping on bridges to account for vehicle-bridge interaction

Vehicle-induced bridge vibration is an important design issue related to operational safety. The vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) phenomenon has traditionally been simulated through time-history integration, which is powerful for research purposes but not convenient for every-day design. In this study, the accuracy of the moving load model (MLM) was improved by adding damping to the simply-supported bridges to account for the VBI effect. A semi-closed formula for this additional damping was derived based on the principle of equivalent energy dissipation. The proposed formula reveals the combination of vehicle and bridge parameters under which the maximum VBI effect occurs. The accuracy and robustness of the additional damping were checked by VBI numerical simulations covering a wide range of vehicle and bridge parameters. The proposed damping was shown to be more accurate than the damping specified by Eurocode 1 in predicting bridge vibrations. Using this damping formula, the response of simply-supported bridges can be easily obtained using the simple moving load model but can take into account the VBI effect.

Automated summary

This study improved the accuracy of the moving load model by adding damping to simply-supported bridges in order to consider the vehicle-bridge interaction effect. A semi-closed formula was derived to reveal the combination of vehicle and bridge parameters at which maximum VBI effect occurs. Numerical simulations verified the accuracy and robustness of the additional damping, which was shown to be more accurate than the damping specified by Eurocode 1 in predicting bridge vibrations.