Performance enhancement of bridge infrastructure systems: Long-span bridge, moving trucks and wind with tuned mass dampers

A long-span bridge infrastructure system (BIS) consists of a long-span bridge, traffic on the bridge, and a natural environment, such as wind. As a type of slender structure, long-span bridges usually experience strong dynamic vibration under both wind and busy traffic loadings, which act on the bridge simultaneously most of the time. However, just like traditional long-span bridge dynamic analyses, existing structural control studies of a long-span bridge usually consider either only wind loading or moving vehicles, but not both at the same time. In addition to causing the bridge to vibrate, a strong crosswind on the bridge deck also endangers the stability of moving vehicles on the bridge. An integrated analytical model was thus developed for a long-span bridge, with moving vehicles under windy conditions, to which is attached tuned mass dampers (TMDs). Since TMD control shares similar fundamental mechanisms with many other structural control measures, the proposed analytical model based on TMD control can also be used for various control studies of long-span bridges as well as with vehicles as a coupled system. First, with this framework considering the vehicles, wind, the bridge and the control system integrally, the structural control of long-span bridges can be designed and evaluated on a more realistic basis; second, the performance of the bridge-vehicle system with tuned mass dampers under windy conditions is parametrically studied for several different control schemes such as when TMDs are installed on the bridge, on a truck and on both; finally some observations of the coupled control system are discussed and the feasibility of developing a temporary control measure to protect unloaded or partially-loaded high-sided trucks from rollover accidents in windy conditions is studied.