BRIDGES THAT FAILED BY RESONANCE

According to the history many structures failed by resonance, I'm going to talk about five
bridges.
Broughton Bridge
The Broughton Bridge was a hanging structure
It had 144 m long, on the Irwel River in Manchester, England.
In 1831, it collapsed when 74 soldiers crossed its marking the passage. Fortunately there were
no deaths.
Although we are not sure that structural failure came into resonance because of the frequency
induced by the passage of the army, it is undoubtedly its collapse marked our popular culture.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Thanks to its, people have heard of the phenomenon of resonance.
On November 7, 1940, just four months after its inauguration, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
(the third largest in the world at that time) came into resonance with a wind of only 65 km /
h.
The effect that caused the collapse of the bridge should not be confused with forced
resonance. In this case, there was no periodic disturbance as the wind blew steadily. The
frequency of the destructive mode was 0.2 Hz.
The event can only be understood if it is considered coupled; structural and aerodynamic
systems, which requires rigorous mathematical analysis.
Norman Foster's Millennium Footbridge
It was quite famous the inauguration of this footbridge that crosses the Thames in London.
On June 10, 2000 was opened to the public and immediately after vibrations were observed in
the structure.
Designed to hold up to 5000 people at a time, the gateway came into resonance only carrying
about 2,000 people.
The first small vibrations forced people to walk in a synchronized way with the swing,
increasing the effect, even when the walkway was relatively little traveled at the beginning of
the day.
As a result, two days later it was closed to make modifications that lasted almost two years
with a cost of 6.25 million euros.
Volgograd Bridge
To 7 months of being inaugurated came into resonance. On May 20, 2010 a storm with wind
gusts caused impressive vibrations in this bridge of the city of Volgograd (Russia)
To suppress these oscillations mass dampers were incorporated in the structure and it is
currently open without detecting more episodes of vibrations.
Arch of Alcontar Bridge
The structure entered resonance before having completed one of the construction phases,
taking only 25 km / h.
The solution was to modify the aerodynamics of the arcs so that the wind transversal to these
would not provoke vortices with frequencies similar to the arc.
Once the construction of the board was completed, the frequencies of the structure changed
and resonance problems ceased, but the aerodynamic modifiers of the arcs were still left.