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Dynamic Characteristic of the Medium Span Concrete Footbridges



Author(s)

Marek Pańtak

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2014.11.012

Department of Bridges and Tunnels Construction, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow 31-155, Poland

Concrete footbridges, due to their mass, stiffness and damping, are perceived as structures more resistant to vibration caused by dynamic action of the users. In order to verify the dynamic behaviour of concrete footbridges, a series of field tests and numerical analyses have been carried out. In the paper, the results of the dynamic field tests of three medium span concrete footbridges with different structural systems (frame, beam and arch footbridges) and their dynamic characteristics (mass, stiffness and damping) are presented. The field tests were carried out for different types of vibration excitation caused by walking, running and jumping persons. Furthermore, the vibrational comfort criteria for footbridges are shortly described and verified for examined structures. The study were supplemented by numerical calculation of natural mode shapes and frequencies of the structures using the 3D FEA (finite element analysis) models with elastic supports elements in order to ensure the compatibility of the calculated and measured mode shapes of the footbridges.

Footbridge vibrations, concrete footbridges, comfort criteria.