CE 629

Term Paper on
“Dynamic Analysis of suspension Bridges”

By
Abhijeet singh (Y4008)
Manish Kumar (Y4210)
 Earthquake Analysis of Suspension Bridges

Introduction
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge where the main load-bearing elements are hung from
suspension cables.

Fig: Distribution of forces in a suspension bridge

It consists of primarily

a) Towers
b) Cables
c) Anchorage
d) Hangers and
e) Suspended deck

As shown in the figure, the cables pass through the top of towers and are anchored on both the
sides of the bridge. Saddles are constructed on the top of towers and cables are passed over it.
As the horizontal components of tension in the cables on both the sides of the towers cancel
each other, a net vertical compressive force is applied on the towers.

Fig: Vertical load carrying capacity through sag

Hangers are provided to hang the deck from the cables. Due to the sag in the cables, there is a
continuous rise in the gradient resulting in an upward force in each small element of the cable
which provides the uplift for the deck through which the traffic passes. Through this
arrangement, the deck can be arched slightly upwards if required providing for more clearance
for navigation purpose.

Deck consists of two girders on two sides connected through stiffening truss structures. Proper
stiffening in the deck is necessary in order to provide stiffness against wind forces. Some
common advantages and disadvantages corresponding to the suspension bridges are as
following.

Advantages
a) Long main span can be achieved
b) Less amount of material is required as compared to other bridges
c) Very little access from below is required except for installation of the main cables. Therefore
construction can be carried out without hindering the flow or navigation.
d) Less mass leads to less amount of inertia forces in earthquake.

Disadvantages
a) Low deck stiffness makes it difficult to carry rail traffic where high concentrated live loads
are applied.
b) Wind loads become very significant and can cause excessive torsional and lateral vibrations
due to low deck stiffness as happened in the case of Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Analysis of vibrations
Conceptual difference between dynamic analysis of a Suspension bridge and Buildings:

a) The fundamental period of vibration of the suspension bridge may be several times the longest
period of a building.
b) In buildings first mode is the primary mode, however due to large fundamental period of
vibration of suspension bridges; it becomes necessary to include relatively large number of
modes to obtain a reasonable representation of actual response.
Fundamental Assumptions

In the dynamic analysis of suspension bridges following general assumptions and approximations are
made:
a) All stresses in the bridge remain within the limits of proportionality and thus follow Hooke's law.
b) The initial dead load is carried by the cable without causing stress in the stiffening girder (or
truss).
c) The cable is assumed to be of a uniform cross section and of a parabolic profile (Other
appropriate profiles can be assumed as well) under dead load. The assumption of a parabolic
profile requires that the ratio of the sag to the span be kept relatively small; in other words, the
cable slopes are, and remain, small.
d) The cables are assumed to be perfectly flexible. Since cable has small moment of inertia
comparing to stiffening structure, this assumption is obviously close to being exact for the
purpose of determining horizontal cable tension and the stresses in the stiffening structure.
e) The initial dead load is carried by cables without causing any stress in the suspended
structure.
f) Small defection theory is applied to obtain the dynamic equation of motion of the suspension
bridge.

Types of vibrations
The natural free vibrations in a suspension bridge can be classified into three categories as
a) Vertical Vibrations
b) Torsional Vibrations
c) Lateral Vibrations

Vertical Vibrations
In pure vertical mode of vibration, all the points on a given cross section of the bridge move by
the same amount in the vertical direction and remain in phase.

Motion Characteristics

Vertical excitation in suspension bridges can be due to:

1. Wind loads
2. Ground motion in Earthquakes
3. Concentrated traffic loads
Force Distribution diagram of suspension bridge can be shown as

Some typical mode shapes of suspension bridge in vertical motion can be shown as
Source: Chul-Young Kim et al
 Torsional Vibrations
In the pure torsional mode of vibration, each cross section of the bridge rotates about an axis
parallel to the longitudinal axis of the bridge and which lies in the same vertical plane as the
centerline of the bridge.

One of the primary vibrational modes in a suspension bridge is torsional vibration. A suspension
bridge can be excited to vibrate in torsional mode by several reasons namely

a) Unsymmetrical traffic loads i.e. traffic only on one side of the bridge.
b) Loss of symmetry while construction itself.
c) Wind forces
d) Ground motion in earthquake perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bridge deck due to
which the cables try to elongate by different amounts and hence apply torsion on the deck
through the hangers.
e) Rotation of the towers by different amounts due to ground motion in earthquake because of
which cables carry slightly different loads and hence vibrational torque gets applied on the
deck.

Torsional resistance of different types of suspended structures

Old decks used to have two stiffening girders with a lateral bracing system. This kind of deck has
very low torsional rigidity which is usually negligible in the context of torsional vibrations.
Bending stiffness of the girders is the only source of restoring force in such type of structures.
Therefore vibrations in this mode are similar to those in vertical direction except that the both the
sides of the deck and the cables move in opposite direction i.e. out of phase.
 Modern suspension bridges have two lateral bracings between the top and bottom flanges of
the girders providing a 4 walled tube like structure which offers very high rigidity against
torsion.

Assumptions for analysis

Besides assuming that cables are parabolic, hangers are vertical and inextensible and
deformations are small a few more assumptions are taken for the purpose of analysis
a) Cross section of the deck is symmetric about the centre.
b) Four horizontal flanges transmit axial forces only.
c) Webs transmit only shear and no tension or compression.
d) The original shape of any cross section remains unchanged though it may undergo rotation
and out of plane deformation (warping).

Analysis

With the above stated assumptions, the analysis of vibrations of suspension bridge can be
done using Hamilton’s principle which can be expressed as
t2

  T  V dt  0
t1

Where T is the total kinetic energy, V is the total potential energy of the system and  is the
variational operator during the time interval t1 to t2.

Following the complex mathematical analysis, the mode shapes obtained are as shown in the
figure.

Mode shapes

1 st mode
 2 nd mode

3 rd mode

4 th mode

Fig: Mode shapes corresponding to first four modes of vibration

Lateral Vibrations
In pure lateral mode of vibrtaion, each cross section swings in pendular fashion in its own
vertical plane resulting in an upward movement of the cables and the suspending structure.

Fundamental Assumptions

a) Small vibrations about position of equillibrium are assumed, so the stiffness of the structure
may taken constant during the motion of structure.
b) The coupling between between lateral, torsional and vertical motions should be taken into
account when a suspesnion is vibrating transeverly. However this coupling will have
significant contribution only if the case of non-small deflections and taking coulpling into
account will lead to very intricate calcualtions, for anlysis accodring to small delfection
theory, coupling is neglected.
c) In lateral vibration, the vibration damping of the structure may be neglected.
d) The suspenders or hangers are inextensible.

Motion Characteristics

Due to large span length of suspension bridge, it’s important to consider their dynamic behavior
under the action of lateral forces. Earthquakes apply great amount of lateral forces on suspension
bridge. Lateral forces are sustained by cables and suspended structure, which transmit the
resulting reactions to the towers and abutments or piers. The Hangers, which connect the
stiffening structure to the cables, because the two loaded systems to interact so that the
deformation of the one system exerts an influence on the other. Compared to the suspended
structure the cables themselves offer only a small exposed area to the wind pressure, but part of
the forces which act on the suspended structure are transmitted trough the inclined hangers to the
cables. The magnitude of the transmitted forces depends on the respective stiffness of the two
systems and on the ratio of the forces acting on them.
Force distribution diagram of suspension bridges can be shown as

Source: Abdel-Ghaffar

Some mode shapes of suspension bridge in lateral motion have been shown on the next page.
\
Case Study: Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a mile-long suspension bridge in the U.S. state of Washington
which was opened to traffic on July 1, 1940 and became famous four months later for a dramatic
wind-induced structural collapse. The failure of the bridge occurred when vibrations in torsional
mode occurred, from winds at a mild 40 MPH. When the left side of the roadway went down, the
right side would rise, and vice-versa, with the centerline of the road remaining still. Specifically,
it was the second torsional mode, in which the midpoint of the bridge remained motionless while
the two halves of the bridge twisted in opposite directions. The amplitude of vibrations increased
with each cycle because the wind pumped in more energy than the flexing of the structure
dissipated. Eventually, the amplitude of the motion increased beyond the strength and lead to
total collapse of the span.
References:
1. Dynamic Analysis of Suspension Bridges, Ahmed Mansour Abdel-Ghaffar
2. Control of suspension bridge flutter instability, Pourzeynal et al
3. Earthquake Engineering Research institute website.
4. MCEER Buffalo Website
5. Wikipedia