Testing and Statistics Analysis on Dynamic Response of Expressway Bridge under Various Vehicles

Abstract

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the traffic infrastructure construction and the growing of the traffic flowing and speed, the vehicle-bridge coupling vibration research has become the focus of the bridge engineering study. The dynamic response of the bridge under the traffic flowing is one of the vital parameters for the vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis. In this paper, a methodology, employing the speed radar gun, the video recorder, and the dynamic strain tester in combination with manually recording is used to continuously and detailed investigate the traffic loads on the expressway bridge within 24 hours a day. With this approach introduced by this paper, all the critical parameters, such as the vehicle type, speed, traffic lane, the arriving time of the traffic and the bridge-vehicle dynamic interaction are all recorded. In this investigation, firstly the dynamic responses of 8 pieces of girders of the bridge under 5650 individual vehicles driving through the bridge are recorded, then in conjunction with the investigated traffic flowing samples, in terms of the vehicle type, some detailed statistics study is conducted on the collected records, and finally the space-time distribution laws of the dynamic response of the bridge under the traffic flowing are studied extensively. The result of this study could provide helpful theoretic guidance and supporting data for the vehicle-bridge coupling vibration research.