Wind-Induced Performance of Long-Span Bridge with Modified Cross-Section Profiles by Stochastic Traffic

Abstract

The presence of traffic on a slender long-span bridge (SLB) deck has two types of primary impacts: (1) modification of the bridge cross-section profiles, which may influence the flutter derivatives and in turn, wind-induced aeroelastic loads acting on the bridge; and (2) additional dynamic loads acting on the bridge including dynamic interactions from the vehicles. As compared to the investigations on the impact of traffic as external dynamic loads, those on the impact from the modification of bridge cross-section profiles are rather rare. A scaled bridge section model with vehicle models distributed on the bridge section has been tested in the wind tunnel laboratory. With the FDs obtained from the wind tunnel experiments of various modified bridge cross-section profiles by stochastic traffic, the present study is to numerically evaluate the impact on the wind-induced performance of the long-span bridge, such as the buffeting response and fatigue damage accumulation.