A novel structural modification to eliminate the early coupling between bending and torsional mode shapes in a cable stayed bridge

Abstract

In this paper, a novel structural modification approach has been adopted to eliminate the early coupling between the bending and torsional mode shapes of vibrations for a cable stayed bridge model generated using ABAQUS software. Two lateral steel beams are added to the middle span of the structure. Frequency analysis is dedicated to obtain the natural frequencies of the first eight mode shapes of vibrations before and after the structural modification approach. Numerical simulations of wind excitations are conducted for the 3D model of the cable stayed bridge with duration of 30 s supporting on real data of a strong wind from the literature. Both vertical and torsional displacements are calculated at the mid span of the deck to analyze both the bending and the torsional stiffness of the system before and after the structural modification. The results of the frequency analysis after applying lateral steel beams declared a safer structure against vertical and torsional vibrations and rarely expected flutter wind speed. Furthermore, the coupling between the vertical and torsional mode shapes has been removed to larger natural frequencies magnitudes with a high factor of safety. The novel structural approach manifested great efficiency in increasing vertical and torsional stiffness of the structure.