A Review on the Combined Effects of Seismic and Vehicular Vibrations on Long Span Bridges

Abstract

Long span bridges are massive structures which are subjected to combined loadings. The increase in span length of long span bridges will result in decrease of their natural frequencies that renders them very susceptible to the actions of various combined dynamic forces. Dynamic loads such as vehicular movement and seismic excitations have greater potential in causing increased vibrations in long span bridges. The vehicular loading is highly variable and depends on type of vehicle, number of lane, behaviour of vehicle such as lane changing, traffic congestions and so on. Further, seismic excitations are characterized by its spatial variability parameters such as incoherence effect, wave passage effect and site response effects. From detailed review, it was found that fewer researches have been carried out in the field of dynamic effects of long span arch bridges and thus the study aims in determining the combined effects of seismic and vehicular vibrations on long span arch bridges.