Dynamic Response of Cable-Stayed Bridges Subjected to Moving Vehicles

Raid KAROUMI
M.Sc., Ph.D. student
Dept. of Structural Eng.
Royal Inst. of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
E-mail:
raid.karoumi@struct.kth.se
Raid Karoumi, born 1964,
received his M.Sc. degree in Civil
Engineering in 1990 from the
Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm. Between 1990 and
1993 he worked as a consultant
and was involved in a variety of
special projects. Since 1993, he
has been working with his Ph.D.
on the dynamic response of cable-
stayed bridges.
Summary
The response of a cable-stayed bridge under a moving vehicle is complex due to the
interaction between the bridge and the vehicle. This paper describes a method of evaluating
this response by idealizing the bridge as a Bernoulli-Euler beam on elastic supports with
varying support stiffness. The analysis uses the mode superposition technique and calculates
the response in time domain, utilizing an iterative scheme. To illustrate the efficiency of the
solution methodology and to highlight the dynamic effects, a numerical example is presented.
1. Introduction
With increasing span length and increasing slenderness of the stiffening girder, the dynamic
behaviour of cable-stayed bridges requires a lot of consideration. The dynamic response of
bridge structure subjected to moving vehicles is complicated. This is because the dynamic
effects induced by traversing vehicles on the bridge are greatly influenced by the interaction
between vehicles and the bridge structure.
In recent years the dynamic behaviour of cable-stayed bridges has been a source of interesting
research. This includes free vibration and forced vibration due to wind and earthquakes
[1,3,4]. However, literature dealing with the dynamic of these bridges due to the vehicular
movements are relatively few. Fleming and Egeseli [3] investigated the dynamic response of a
cable-stayed bridge to seismic and wind loads as well as the load of a single moving constant
force. Chatterjee et al. [2] used a continuum approach for finding the vibration of cable-stayed
bridges due to vehicular movement. Wang and Huang [7] conducted a similar study but used
the finite element method for the analysis. Miyazaki et al. [6] used the finite element method
and studied the running quality of prestressed concrete multicable-stayed railway bridges.
In all the aforementioned studies, authors either used very simple vehicle models [3] (constant
force) or very complicated and time-consuming vehicle and bridge models [2,6,7].
The objective of this study is to analyze the cable-stayed bridge dynamic response using a very
simple bridge model, namely a continuous beam on elastic supports and a simple vehicle
model consisting of a single sprung mass. The numerical results are compared with the results
obtained using the commercial finite element code ABAQUS to validate the model. The results
indicate that the model presented in this paper is very effective for calculating the bridge
dynamic response to moving vehicles.
2. Vehicle and Structure Modelling
2.1 Vehicle Model
The vehicle model used in this study is a suspension model with two degrees of freedom. This
model is sufficient if the real vehicle length is small compared with the bridge length. The
author believes that the use of simplified models may be more effective in identifying
correlation between the governing vehicle-bridge interaction parameters and the bridge
response.
If the contact force between the bridge and the vehicle is denoted by
( )
F t , the following
equations of motion can be established
( ) ( ) ( ) + + +

_
,

+ m m g
t
k w w c
t t
F t
S S 1 2 1
1
2 1
2 1
m
w w w d
d
d
d
d
d
2
2
0 (1)
( ) m
t
k w w c
t t
S S 2
2
2 1
2 1
d
d
d
d
d
d
2
2
0
w w w
+ +

_
,

(2)
where ( ) w t
1
and ( ) w t
2
are the displacements of the vehicle unsprung mass m
1
and the vehicle
sprung mass m
2
, respectively, k
S
the stiffness of the spring connecting the two masses, c
S
the damping coefficient of the viscous damper, and g the acceleration of gravity.
Assuming that the vehicle never loses contact with the bridge (that is
( )
F t > 0) , the following
coupling equations for the point of contact ( ( ) ( ) x t x t
v
) must be fulfilled:
( ) ( ) ( )
w t y x t ,t
1
, ( )
w t
y
x
v
y
t
1
+

, ( )
w t
y
x
v
y
x t
v
y
x
a
y
t
1
+ + +

2
2
2
2 2
2
2 , (3a-c)
where ( )
w t
1
and ( )
w t
1
denote the unsprung mass vertical velocity and acceleration,
respectively, v and a the vehicle velocity and acceleration, respectively, and ( ) ( )
y x t ,t the
bridge displacement.
2.2 Bridge Structure
For the present study, the self anchored fan-shaped cable-stayed bridge scheme with only the
main span suspended as shown in Fig. 1 is adopted. The following assumptions are made:
Fig. 1. Idealized vehicle in contact with a cable-stayed bridge
uniform mass and flexural rigidity of the stiffening girder
cable forces under dead load are so adjusted that all displacements remain zero
axial girder forces have negligible effect on frequencies and mode shapes
negligible cable mass
bridge damping is small and therefore neglected
bridge/vehicle system is at rest when the vehicle enters the main span of the bridge
road surface is in excellent shape. This means that the excitation of the dynamic system is
caused only by the elastic displacement of the bridge.
The governing equation of motion for vertical vibration of the bridge at any section of the
stiffening girder (idealized as a Bernoulli-Euler beam on elastic supports) is given by
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( ) ( ) E I
y x,t
x
k x y x,t m
y x,t
t
x x F t
g g
4
4
c g
2
2
v

+ + (4)
where is the Dirac delta function, E
g
the modulus of elasticity, I
g
the moment of inertia,
m
g
the mass per unit length, and k
c
the spring stiffness. The effects of rotatory inertia and
shear deformation are neglected as the cross-sectional dimensions of the stiffening girder are
small in comparison with its length and the higher vibration modes are not significantly
excited.
This paper will present only the simple case with a fixed pylon top, which roughly simulates a
cable-stayed bridge with short side spans and very stiff anchorage cables. (A more realistic
case is presented in [5]). If the cables are approximated by springs and fixed pylon top is
assumed, the following spring stiffness can be derived:
( )
( )
k x
E x q
H
x
H
0 x
L

c
c
a

_
,

'

1
1
2
2
(5)
where
a
is the allowable cable stress and q the dead load plus the live load per unit length.
The cable geometric nonlinearity, due to the change of the sag and shape under varying
stresses (forces), is approximately taken into account by using an equivalent tangent modulus
of elasticity ( ) E x
c
in equation (5). The derivation of equation (5) and an expression that
includes the effect of the elongation of the cables in the main span, the elongation of the
anchorage cables, and stiffness of the pylons, is given in [5].
Equations (1-5) together with the boundary and initial conditions, now provide all the
information necessary for a solution of the problem.
3.0 Dynamic Analysis
Using mode superposition technique, the solution of equation (4) can be written as a product
of eigenfunctions (mode shape functions) ( ) z x
i
and generalized coordinates
( )
i
t
giving
( ) ( ) ( ) y x t z x t
i
i
i
,

1
(6)
where i is the mode number. The first natural step will be to study the free vibration of the
bridge structure by using equation (4) and setting the right-hand side equal to zero. By
replacing y(x,t) in equation (4) with the product of the two functions mentioned above,
dividing the beam into n equal segments each of length h, giving n-1 unknowns, and replacing
the derivative in (4) with its finite difference approximation, the following eigenvalue
problem is obtained:
A Z Z (7)
where A is a symmetric banded matrix with a bandwidth of 5. The first diagonal elements
contain functions of the spring stiffnesses, the second diagonal elements contain -4, and the
third diagonal elements 1. Z is a matrix with the mode shapes stored in the different columns,
and a diagonal matrix containing the eigenvalues. Mode shapes and corresponding circular
frequencies are now obtained numerically by solving equation (7).
The next step is to study the forced vibration. By substituting (6) into (4), using the
orthogonality properties of the eigenfunctions, and setting the normalization constant equal to
unity, the following equation of motion in generalized coordinates is obtained:
( )

+
2
i i i
g
i v
F
m
z x (8)
When dividing the beam into n equal segments, the term ( ) z x
i v
in equation (8) will be the
value in the ith column in Z and the row number corresponding to the point of contact.
Solving the simple second order differential equation (8), the bridge displacement is now
obtained from the sum
( )
( )
( )
y z +
+
+

_
,

i
i v
i g
i v i i g
i g
i
i
i
i
i
n
F z x
m
F z x m
m
t t

2
0
2
2
0
1
1
cos

sin (9)
The bridge vertical acceleration is obtained by differentiating equation (9) twice. The dynamic
interaction between the bridge and the vehicle is included by utilizing an iterative scheme
where the recalculation of the bridge displacement is repeated in each step until convergence
is obtained.
4. Numerical Example
Results obtained from the present model and from the FEM code ABAQUS are shown in
Fig. 2 below.
1
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,4
1,5
1,6
1,7
50 100 150 200 250 300
Speed (Km/h)
D
y
n
a
m
i
c

a
m
p
l
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

f
a
c
t
o
r

f
o
r

d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
,

m
a
x
(
y
d
y
n
)
/
m
a
x
(
y
s
t
a
) Ig=0,3
Ig=0,5
Ig=0,8
Frequencies (Hz) for Ig=0,5 m
4
Mode
number
Present
analysis
ABAQUS
1 0,5662 0,5628
2 0,7849 0,7785
3 1,0164 1,0150
4 1,2747 1,2750
5 1,6164 1,6187
6 2,0899 2,0950
7 2,6951 2,7046
8 3,4219 3,4384
-0,035
-0,03
-0,025
-0,02
-0,015
-0,01
-0,005
0
0,005
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
Vehicle position, x
v
/L
M
i
d

p
o
i
n
t

d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

(
m
)
Present
ABAQUS
Dynamic
Static
Ig=0,5 m
4
v =125 Km/h
-0,20
-0,15
-0,10
-0,05
0,00
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
Vehicle position, x
v
/L
S
p
r
u
n
g

m
a
s
s

v
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

a
c
c
e
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n

(
m
/
s
2
)
Ig=0,5 m
4
v =125 Km/h
Fig. 2. Results obtained using the present analysis method and comparison of natural
frequencies (Hz) and mid point deflection with results from the FEM code ABAQUS
Bridge and vehicle data:
L H I m q
g g
300 12 10
3
m; = 45 m; 0,3- 0,8 m ; kg / m; =17 10 N / m;
4 4
( )
a g c
E E x n = 720 10 N / m ; N / m ;
6 2 2
0 2 1 10 100
11
, ;
m m c k
S S 2
, 32700 0 12 5 10
4
kg; kg; Ns / m; 12 10 N / m
1
6
.
8 modes are included in the present analysis and in ABAQUS direct time integration was used.
In [5], a more detailed investigation is done and figures for the bending moment are shown.
5. Conclusions
The dynamic response of cable-stayed bridges is much more complicated than that of
beam/girder bridges. It is clear that the modelling assumptions outlined above ignore several
factors that may significantly affect the response, particularly those related to stiffness of the
anchorage cables, road surface roughness, and vehicle configuration. The author believes that
a study of the simplified model is very useful in identifying the important parameters.
Furthermore, once the basic parameters have been identified, it is possible to refine the model
to include other variables.
The simple model presented here gives accurate results and only consumes a c.p.u. time on the
order of a few minutes. The effects of road surface roughness, vehicle type, and structural
configuration on the dynamic response will be the topic of a future paper by the author.
6. References
[1] Abdel-Ghaffar A.M., Nazmy A.S., 3-D Nonlinear seismic behaviour of cable-stayed
bridges, J. Struct. Engng., ASCE, Vol. 117, No. 11, Nov. 1991, pp. 3456-3476.
[2] Chatterjee P.K., Datta T.K., Surana C.S., Vibration of cable-stayed bridges under
moving vehicles, Struct. Engng. Int., No. 2, 1994, pp. 116-121.
[3] Fleming J.F., Egeseli E.A., Dynamic behaviour of a cable-stayed bridge, Earthquake
Engng. Struct. Dynamics, Vol. 8, 1980, pp. 1-16.
[4] Karoumi R., Aerodynamic stability, wind forces on suspension and cable-stayed
bridges (in Swedish), TRITA-BKN Report No. 11, Dept. of Struct. Engng., Royal
Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 1994.
[5] Karoumi R., Dynamic response of cable-stayed bridges subjected to moving vehicles,
Licentiate Thesis, Dept. of Struct. Engng., Royal Institute of Technology, (in printing).
[6] Miyazaki S., Kanamori M., Wakui H., Matsumoto N., Sogabe M., Analytical study on
dynamic response and riding comfort of PC multicable-stayed railway bridge, Int.
Conference on Speedup Technology for Railway and Maglev Vehicles, Yokohama, Nov.
1993, pp. 424-429.
[7] Wang T.L., Huang D., Cable-stayed bridge vibration due to road surface roughness,
J. Struct. Engng., ASCE, Vol. 118, No. 5, May. 1992, pp. 1354-1374.