Special Studies for Vasco da Gama Bridge

Abstract

The importance and structural characteristics of the Vasco da Gama Bridge led to the development of some special studies to achieve a more detailed analysis of its structural behavior. The studies reported in this paper concern the following subjects: (1) Analysis of the behavior of the deck under a “design ship fire”; (2) study of an elastoplastic damping system to control the seismic response; and (3) analysis of the aerodynamic behavior of the bridge (computational fluid dynamics analysis of the deck and dynamic analyses of the structure to assess the effects of wind gusts). These studies gave technical support to some important decisions that were undertaken, such as the installation of two vertical baffles under the deck to improve the aerodynamic stability and eight hysteretic damping devices in the connections between the deck and the towers to reduce the seismic displacements.