Vehicle-bridge coupled vibrations in different types of cable stayed bridges

Numerical analyses of the coupled vibrations of vehicle-bridge system and the effects of different types of cable stayed bridges on the coupled vibration responses have been presented in this paper using ANSYS. The bridge model and vehicle model were independently built which have no internal relationship in the ANSYS. The vehicle-bridge coupled vibration relationship was obtained by using the APDL program which subsequently imposed on the vehicle and bridge models during the numerical analysis. The proposed model was validated through a field measurements and literature data. The judging method, possibility, and criterion of the vehicle-bridge resonance (coupled vibrations) of cable stayed bridges (both the floating system and half floating system) under traffic flows were presented. The results indicated that the interval time between vehicles is the main influence factor on the resonance excitation frequency under the condition of equally spaced traffic flows. Compared to other types of cable stayed bridges, the floating bridge system has relatively high possibility to cause vehicle-bridge resonance.