Dynamic Analysis of Steel-Concrete Composite Tubular Footbridges Submitted To Human Walking

Abstract eng:
The increasing incidence of footbridges excessive vibration problems due to human walking induced loads led to an increase in the number of complaints arising from annoying human-induced vibrations in new footbridge structures. Based on the improvements in design methods, structural engineers seem to continuously move the safety border to increase slenderness and lightness of their footbridges using more slender structural designs. Considering all aspects mentioned before, this was the main motivation for the development of a finite element modelling of the dynamic behaviour of steel-concrete composite tubular footbridges, when subjected to human walking vibrations. The investigated structural system was based on a steel-concrete composite tubular footbridge spanning 82.5 m. The structural model consists of tubular steel sections and a concrete slab. This investigation is carried out based on correlations between the experimental results related to the footbridge dynamic response and those obtained with finite element modelling. The finite element model enabled a complete dynamic evaluation of the composite tubular footbridge in terms of human comfort and its associated vibration serviceability limit states. The peak accelerations found in the present analysis indicated that the investigated footbridge presented problems related with human comfort. Hence it was detected that this type of structure can reach high vibration levels that can compromise the footbridge user’s comfort.

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