Dynamic and Buffeting Analysis of Suspension Pipeline Bridge

Abstract

Suspension aerial crossing structures are broadly applied for supporting petroleum pipelines across special terrain for their optimal structural style and constructional benefit. Due to the general flexibility of the structures, pipeline suspension bridges easily vibrate under the action of random wind forces. One of the typical vibration responses, known as buffeting, is considered to be an important factor for the serviceable safety of suspension bridges. In this paper, the dynamical model of a suspension pipeline bridge is presented and buffeting analysis under the action of wind loads is carried out through the Finite Element Method. It is shown that the frequency spectrum of the suspension pipeline bridge is composed of densely distributed modal frequencies. Low frequencies are mainly focused on horizontal and vertical bending motions of the bridge. Based on the standard harmonic response analysis, the Pseudo-Excitation Method (PEM) is introduced to obtain the buffeting vibration in response to the wind excitation. The correlative formulas of quasi-static buffeting force model are derived, and the buffeting analysis of the bridge using PEM is achieved on the solution platform Ansys.