Lateral Vibration of High-Pier Bridges under Moving Vehicular Loads

Abstract

When studying the vibration of a bridge-vehicle coupled system, most researchers focus on the vertical vibration of bridges under moving vehicular loads. In reality, the moving vehicular loads can also induce significant lateral vibrations of high-pier bridges. This study is focused on establishing a new methodology considering the bridge’s lateral vibration induced by moving vehicles. The vehicle tire is modeled as a three-dimensional elementary spring model, and the contact patch is assumed to be a rectangle. Three significant factors that affect the lateral forces, including the slip angle, camber angle, and vehicle tires moving with an “S” shape, are introduced in studying the effect of the lateral forces on the lateral vibration of bridges. The bridge-vehicle coupled equations are established by combining the equations of motion of both the bridge and vehicles using the displacement relationship and interaction force relationship at the contact patch. The accuracy and efficiency of the present method are verified by comparing the simulations and the field test results of a typical high-pier bridge, showing that the proposed method can rationally simulate the lateral vibration of the bridge under moving vehicular loads.