Bridge Damping Extraction Method from Vehicle–Bridge Interaction System Using Double-Beam Model

Abstract

When vehicles interact with a bridge, a vehicle–bridge interaction (VBI) system is created. The frequency and modal shape of VBI systems have been widely studied, but the damping of VBI systems has not been adequately investigated. In recent years, several incidents of abnormal bridge vibration due to changes in bridge damping have occurred and aroused widespread concern in society. Damping is an important evaluation index of structural dynamic performance. Knowing the damping ratio of a VBI system is useful for analyzing the damping changes while a bridge is in service. This paper presents a method to extract bridge damping values from a VBI system, which can serve as a guide for bridge damping evaluation. First, a double-beam theoretical model was used to simplify the VBI system for cases involving uniform traffic flow. The damping ratio equation for the simplified VBI system was obtained using the extended dynamic stiffness method (EDSM). A double-beam finite element model and a VBI finite element model were established. The damping ratios of the two models were separately calculated and then compared with the simplified VBI model results. The results verified the accuracy of the simplified method. This paper then explains that bridge damping values can be extracted by estimating the equivalent traffic flow parameters and using the damping formula for the simplified VBI system. The bridge damping ratios extracted using this method in an engineering case ranged from 0.75% to 0.78%, which is smaller than the range that was directly identified using monitoring data (0.83–1.19%). The results show that the method can effectively extract bridge damping ratios and improve damping ratio identification.