Computer simulation of coupled vehicle-cable stayed bridge systems under gust wind

This paper presents a numerical simulation for determining dynamic responses of coupled vehicle-cable stayed bridge systems under gust wind in the time domain. Road vehicles are idealised as a combination of a number of rigid bodies connected by a series of springs and dampers. A cablestayed bridge is modeled using the conventional finite element approach taking into account geometric nonlinearity. The wind forces acting on the bridge include steady-state wind forces, buffeting forces and self-exciting forces. The wind forces acting on the vehicle are expressed as a function of aerodynamic parameters obtained from wind tunnel tests. The equations of motion of coupled vehiclebridge systems under gust wind are then established using a fully computerised approach. The application to a real long span cable stayed bridge with a group of moving road vehicles under gust wind demonstrates that the proposed method and the associated computer program can efficiently predict dynamic responses of coupled vehicle-cable stayed bridge under gust wind.