Transverse Vibration Analysis of Complicated Truss Arch Bridges Using Continuum Elements

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Civil Engineering, Tafresh University, Markazi, Iran

Abstract

Modeling and analysis of complicated truss arch bridges are very time consuming process. In this paper, for more convenient modeling and reduction of analysis time, the complicated truss arch bridges are simulated to the continuum curved beam elements. As a matter of fact, the three dimensional body of a truss bridge is modeled based on the equations governing the out of plane performance of a curved beam. To this end, a new mixed finite element formulation (stiffness-softness) is presented using weighted residual method. In order to verify the accuracy of the present method, the transverse vibration of three truss arch bridges is investigated under a specific time-history. The results are comparable with those obtained from more exact 3D models simulated with SAP 2000 general purpose software, regarding the acceleration and displacement response. Furthermore, in the proposed method the number of elements is significantly less than complicated 3D models, leading to more suited initial design.

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