Numerical Simulation of Fire Damage to a Long-Span Truss Bridge

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed investigation on numerical simulation of an accidental fire on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, which is a major long-span truss bridge connecting Manhattan to Queens in New York City. A truck traveling on the lower deck of the bridge caught fire, which spread to major bridge components supporting the upper deck. The fire was observed to last approximately 30 min. The heat released from the fire severely damaged two exterior stringers of the upper deck supporting an exterior lane, which led to the closure of this lane for several weeks. This paper presents detailed research on numerical simulation of the entire process of the fire and prediction of the structural response of the deck subjected to the fire loading. The simulation results show very good correlation between the simulated and observed damages, where the simulated out-of-plane deformation of the exposed stringers agrees well with measured deformations. The methodology presented in this paper is an effective approach for fire-structure interaction modeling and simulation and has the potential for application to other civil structures.