Kinematics of Movable Bridges

Abstract

The majority of all built movable bridges can be grouped into one of the following three structural systems: Bascule bridges, swing bridges, and lift bridges. Many examples for each of these three types of bridges exist and have been documented in the existing literature. The kinematics of these three traditional bridge systems are simple at first sight but nevertheless are important for conceptual design and calculation. Moreover, some recently built or proposed movable pedestrian bridges in Europe differ distinctly from the three aforementioned traditional types of movable bridges. A range of these new ideas is presented here in the context of their kinematic behavior. The writers believe that the understanding of kinematic principles, which are applied regularly in other engineering disciplines, will assist with the development of further new ideas for movable bridges. This paper endeavours to present some such principles and illustrate the application to the given topic.