OPTIMAL DESIGN AND DYNAMICS OF TRUSS BRIDGES

Abstract eng:
Bridge structures have attracted the interest of Engineers throughout the history because they represent the attempt of men to overcome obstacles. Bridges allow easier connections between two different points and faster displacements of goods and people. The present work makes use of truss structures to search for the most efficient bridges. We first present numerical results for minimal mass truss bridge designs. Our approach creates a network of tensile and compressive members distributed throughout the system at many different scales. We leave the prestress calibration to a second step of our design strategy, to be carried out after the minimal mass topology has been determined, with the aim of optimizing the dynamic performance of the structure. A numerical example shows that the vibration modes of the examined bridge model can be tuned by playing with the prestress of the deck members.

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