The Effect of Traffic Growth on Characteristic Bridge Load Effects (original) (raw)

Characteristic dynamic traffic load effects in bridges

Engineering Structures, 2009

When formulating an approach to assess bridge traffic loading with allowance for Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI), a trade-off is necessary between the limited accuracy and computational demands of numerical models and the limited time periods for which experimental data is available. Numerical modelling can simulate sufficient numbers of loading scenarios to determine characteristic total load effects, including an allowance for VBI. However, simulating VBI for years of traffic is computationally expensive, often excessively so. Furthermore, there are a great many uncertainties associated with numerical models such as the road surface profile and the model parameter values (e.g., spring stiffnesses) for the heavy vehicle fleet. On site measurement of total load effect, including the influence of VBI, overcomes many of these uncertainties as measurements are the result of actual loading scenarios as they occur on the bridge. However, it is often impractical to monitor bridges for extended periods of time which raises questions about the accuracy of calculated characteristic load effects.

Bridge traffic loading: the implications of some recent findings

2006

The maintenance of highway infrastructure requires major expenditure in many countries. By minimizing the repair or replacement of highway bridges in particular, this cost can be reduced significantly. Of the two bridge assessment components, loading is more difficult to estimate than strength, due to its more variable nature. Consequently, bridge traffic loading has been an area of intensive research in