Impact Effect Due To Pavement Irregularities OnThe Dynamic Response Of Bridges

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of pavement irregularities on the dynamic response of single span bridges. The irregularities in the bridge deck exist due to several factors such as the braking actions by heavy trucks, the artificial barriers at certain locations to reduce the vehicles speed, the misalignment at the expansion joints, and the climatic variations effects on the pavement materials. The irregularities in the bridge deck are modeled in this paper as either a continuous sinusoidal profile or as an individual hump of rectangular or sinusoidal shape located at certain points on the bridge. The bridge is modeled as a single span beam with simple supports. The dynamic response of the bridge represented by the maximum deflection and acceleration is compared with the response of an ideal smooth deck bridge for several parameters of the type of pavement irregularit as.