The Influence of the Load Model and other Parameters on the Dynamic Behavior of Curved-in-Plane Bridges

This paper deals with the dynamic behavior of curved-in-plane bridges where the effect of the bridge curvature radius, the moving load (vehicle) speed, the truck cant angle, the deck surface conditions and, mainly, the response accuracy depending on the vehicle model used are investigated. Besides the above parameters, the influence of several loading models is studied as well, especially the models of a concentrated load, a damped mass-load, a sequence of two concentrated loads and a real vehicle aswell as a damped vehicle,where its width is taken into account. A 3-DOF model is considered for the analysis of the bridge, while the theoretical formulation is based on a continuum approach, which has been widely used in the literature to analyze such bridges.