A general framework for investigating the on-load frequencies of roadway bridges under stochastic traffic flows was developed. The cellular automaton (CA) model was adopted to develop the stochastic traffic flow. The on-load natural frequencies of the bridge are analyzed statistically. The results show that the on-load frequencies of bridge are less than the corresponding natural frequencies of the bridge. For higher or lower traffic occupancies, the fluctuation of on-load natural frequencies of the bridge becomes smaller than that under the middle range of traffic flow densities. A linear relationship exists between the mean frequency difference and the traffic flow density, with the mean slope of regression lines for the first four natural frequencies being 0.0844. There is a stronger linear relationship between the mean frequency difference and the total traffic weight, with the mean slope being 0.482. Based on traffic flow density or total traffic weight on the bridge, it is possible to make an estimate of the effect of traffic flows on the on-load frequency of a reinforced concrete continuous beam bridge using the regression relationships.

Abstract. Based on Cellular automation (CA) traffic flow simulation technology widely used in the transportation field, a general framework of investigating the variation of natural frequencies of a roadway bridge under vehicle flow was developed. The results revealed that the values of the frequencies decrease as the traffic density increases and the effect on high modes of the bridge under vehicle flow is more significant.