• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.523-538
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• 2017

A series of field vibration tests are conducted on the Runyang Suspension Bridge during both the construction and operational stages. The purpose of this study is devoted to the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower. After the tower was erected, an array of accelerometers was deployed to study the evolution of its modal parameters during the construction process. Dynamic tests were first performed under the freestanding tower condition and then under the tower-cable condition after the superstructure was installed. Based on the identified modal parameters, the effect of the pile-soil-structure interaction on dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower is investigated. Moreover, the stiffness of the pile foundation is successfully identified using a probabilistic finite model updating method. Furthermore, challenges of identifying the dynamic properties of the tower from the coupled responses of the tower-cable system are discussed in detail. It's found that compared with the identified results from the freestanding tower, the longitudinal and torsional natural frequencies of the tower in the tower-cable system have changed significantly, while the lateral mode frequencies change slightly. The identified modal results from measurements by the structural health monitoring system further confirmed that the vibrations of the bridge subsystems (i.e., the tower, the suspended deck and the main cable) are strongly coupled with one another.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.951-968
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• 2016

Long-span cross-strait bridges extending into deep-sea waters are exposed to complex marine environments. During the construction stage, the flexible freestanding bridge towers are more vulnerable to environmental loads imposed by wind and wave loads. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the dynamic responses of a 389-m-high freestanding bridge tower model in a test facility with a wind tunnel and a wave flume. An elastic bridge model with a geometric scale of 1:150 was designed based on Froude similarity and was tested under wind-only, wave-only and wind-wave combined conditions. The dynamic responses obtained from the tests indicate that large deformation under resonant sea states could be a structural challenge. The dominant role of the wind loads and the wave loads change according to the sea states. The joint wind and wave loads have complex effects on the dynamic responses of the structure, depending on the approaching direction angle and the fluid-induced vibration mechanisms of the waves and wind.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.491-502
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• 2022

A model experiment with a scale of 1:150 has been conducted to investigate the dynamic responses of a freestanding four-column bridge tower subjected to regular wave, random wave and coupled wave-current actions. The base shear forces of the caisson foundation and the dynamic behaviors of the superstructure were measured and analyzed. The comparisons of the test values with the theoretical values shows that wave-induced base shear forces on the bridge caisson foundation can be approximated by using a wave force calculation method in which the structure is assumed to be fixed and rigid. Although the mean square errors of the base shear forces excited by joint random wave and current actions are approximately equal to those excited by pure random waves, the existence of a forward current increases the forward base shear forces and decreases the backward base shear forces. The tower top displacements excited by wave-currents are similar to those excited by waves, suggesting that a current does not significantly affect the dynamic responses of the superstructure of the bridge tower. The experiment results can be used as a reference for similar engineering design.