Dynamic testing of a reinforced concrete road bridge

Cristian Lucian Ghindea1, a, Ionut Radu Racanel1,b , Radu Cruciat1,c

1
Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Department of Strength of Materials, Bridges
and Tunnels, Blvd. Lacul Tei 124, sector 2, Bucharest, Romania
a
ghindea@utcb.ro, bionut@cfdp.utcb.ro, crcruciat@utcb.ro

Keywords: bridge experimental testing, road traffic, bridge dynamic characteristics, human
comfort, frequency weighted acceleration, numerical analysis.

Abstract. Considering on one hand the calculation model of the bridge, simplifying assumptions
and design criteria and on the other hand the inherent differences between the project and final
structure, the real structure behaviour under traffic loads can be different from that one considered
in the design stage. Therefore the need of experimental tests before commissioning of bridges arises
and this task is generally conditioned by complexity of the structure, the technologies used in
construction and the requirements of the relevant stakeholders. The paper presents the test
conditions for a reinforced concrete road bridge in Romania and the results obtained following the
experimental tests. The experimentally determined dynamic characteristics of the bridge and the
peek vertical accelerations are compared with those obtained by performing numerical analyses of
the bridge. Due to the fact that the bridge is provided with walkways, it is appropriate to presume
that the vibrations induced by road traffic will affect the pedestrians walking on the bridge. Same
experimental data presented above can provide a view into how traffic induced vibrations can affect
pedestrians on the bridge. For this reason, in the paper are presented the results in terms of human
perception and the comparison between the resulting values and some generally accepted values

Introduction
Generally, several simplifying hypothesis are taken into consideration when a bridge is designed.
Starting from the physico-mechanical characteristics of the materials and ending with the numerical
model of the bridge, one can find different simplifying assumptions or design criteria in all the
design process. Beside this facts, it is known that between the project and final structure usually
results some inherent differences which makes the real structure to behave differently under traffic
loads compared with the design stage. Taking into consideration the life time and the importance of
the bridges from economic and social point of the view, it is mandatory for all the bridges to be
tested before bringing them into service. The purpose of the testing is to verify the design criteria,
but also to make a verification of the building-up process of the bridge.
The experimental testing procedure of a bridge is dependent to the complexity of the structure. The
Romanian standard effective, STAS 12504-86-Railway bridges, Road bridges viaducts and
walkways. Testing of superstructures with test actions, imposes that the testing of the new bridges
has to be specified in the design for bridges which present a novelty from point of view of the
materials used, of the calculus method, of the opening, or of the technologies of execution, being
mandatory performed for bridges with openings larger than 33 m [1].
In the paper is presented the dynamic test of a reinforced concrete road bridge according with main
Romanian regulations. The testing data are processed in order to obtain the dynamic response of the
bridge from the structural and human comfort point of view.

Bridge description
The object of the dynamic experimental testing is a reinforced concrete bridge crossing the National
Road DN 1. The structure of the bridge is continuous beam type with four spans (21.85+21.70+
+31.30+21.85m), supported on two piers and the end bridge abutments. The bridge has two lanes,
one for every direction, and two walkways on every side of the road surface.
In figure 1 are shown the image and the schematic plane view of the bridge.

Fig. 1 The reinforced concrete bridge: (a) image at the dynamic test time, (b) the schematic plane
view with the position of the measurement stations and accelerometers

Materials and methods

In accordance with STAS 12504-86 [1], the dynamic test load was obtained with a test vehicle, a 40
tonnes truck loaded with ballast, passing on the bridge with different constant speeds. The
amplification of the dynamic effect is obtained with a wooden plank with the thickness of 4 cm,
width of 30 cm, length of 300 cm, having the edges of the superior part flattened at 45. As stated,
the wooden plank provides the means to amplify the dynamic action and to obtain a load similar to
the impact load.
For the dynamic test, the vertical accelerations of the bridge deck were real time recorded in every
stage of the test. The measurements stations and the accelerometers position is shown in figure 1(b).
The bridge was tested in four stages depending of the speed of the truck. Starting from 10 km/h, the
speed was increased to 30 km/h, 50 km/h and, respectively, 70 km/h.

Fig. 2 The dynamic action components: (a) the 40 tonnes truck, (b) the positioning of the wooden
plank on the road surface of the bridge

The testing procedure produced a quasi-impact load on the bridge and one can assume that the
bridge vibrates freely after the passing of the truck over the wooden plank. Taking into
consideration the free vibration of the structure, from the acceleration records, one can determine
the dynamic characteristics of the bridge [2]. The natural period of the vertical vibration of the deck
and the damping ratio were determined for every loading stage. In order to obtain a more accurate
determination of the vibration frequencies, the frequency content of the vibration was determined
for every record through the power spectra of the recorded accelerograms [3].
The experimentally determined vibration frequencies along with the peak vertical accelerations
were compared with the values obtained from the numerical modelling of the bridge with finite
elements [4].
Taking into account that the road bridge is endowed with two walkways, an important aspect of the
experiment is to determine the response of the bridge to the road traffic from the human comfort
point of view. In order to evaluate the pedestrians exposure to whole-body vibrations of the bridge
deck vertical acceleration are frequency weighted. The frequency weighting process is made using
the one-third-octave band mid-frequencies and include the band limitation between 1 Hz and 80 Hz.
The vertical acceleration records from every loading stage were frequency weighted according with
the standard ISO 2631-2:2003 [5] and the peak accelerations were compared with the comfort curve
defined in ISO 2631-2:1989 [6].

Results and conclusions

Experimental testing results. In order to visualize the response of the bridge to the impact
produced by the test vehicle, in figure 3(a) is represented the vertical acceleration record in the
middle of the bigger span (see the position of the 7751 accelerometer from figure 1) for a 50 km/h
speed.

Fig. 3 The response of the bridge acted by the test vehicle at 50 km/h: (a) vertical acceleration
measured with accelerometer 7751, (b) power spectrum of the accelerogram, (c) frequency
weighted accelerogram, (d) 1/3 Octave spectrum

In table 1 are shown the dynamic characteristics of the bridge determined directly from the manual
processing of the recorded accelerograms and the main frequency resulted from the power spectrum
analysis.
Damping Natural Natural Power spectrum
Logarithmic
Test ratio period frequency main frequencies
decrement
[%] [s] [Hz] [Hz]
st
1 test (10 km/h) 0.189 2.99 0.284 3.52 3.38, 4.67
2nd test (30 km/h) 0.243 3.85 0.286 3.50 3.42, 4.67
rd
3 test (50 km/h) 0.405 6.44 0.302 3.31 3.38
4th test (70 km/h) 0.243 3.87 0.271 3.69 3.38
Table 1 Dynamic characteristics of the bridge

Finite element analysis. In the case of finite elements model, there were followed two aspects.
First aspect was about the modal analysis of the bridge and the comparison of the frequencies
corresponding to the modal shapes of the deck to the experimental determined values. The second
problem was the modelling of the dynamic test load and the comparison between the peak vertical
acceleration at the deck level from numerical analysis and the experimental tests. The impact load
was simulated through a consecutive steps function.
In figure 4 are depicted the modal shapes corresponding to the first two modes with vertical
participation mass ratio, the response vertical acceleration in the middle section of the bigger span,
for a vehicle passing on the bridge with 50 km/h and the comparison of the experimental peak
acceleration with the comfort curve defined in .

Fig. 4 FEM model and final comparison of the results: (a) 4th mode, T4=0.37s, f4=2.68Hz (1st
vertical mode of the deck), (b) 7th mode, T7=0.24s, f7=4.15Hz (2nd vertical mode of the deck) , (c)
vertical acceleration in the middle section of the span with FEM, (d) ISO curves for human comfort

Conclusions. Analysing the vibration frequencies of the bridge it can be observed that the real
bridge has bigger frequency values in regard to the frequency value resulted from finite elements
analysis and accepted as allowable at design stage. However, one can observe that the first vertical
vibration frequency of the deck (numerical or experimental determined) is in typical frequencies
range for this type of structure, usually between 2 and 3.5 Hz. From the human comfort point of
view, the peak frequency weighted acceleration are close to the curve corresponding to outdoor
footbridges. One can observe that the acceleration resulted from the crossing of the bride with low
speed are more perceptible than the accelerations corresponding to higher passing speeds.

References
[1] STAS 2504-86, Railway bridges, viaducts and walkways. Testing of superstructures with test
actions, ASRO, Bucharest, 1986.
[2] Chopra, A. K., Dynamics of Structures, third ed., Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2006
[3] Information on http://www.seismosoft.com/en/SeismoSignal.aspx
[4] Information on https://wiki.csiberkeley.com/display/sap2000/Home
[5] ISO 2631-2:2003, Mechanical vibration and shock - Evaluation of human exposure to whole-
body vibration - Part 2: Vibration in buildings (1 Hz to 80 Hz), Geneva, 2003.
[6] ISO 2631-2:1989, Mechanical vibration and shock - Evaluation of human exposure to whole-
body vibration - Part 2: Vibration in buildings (1 Hz to 80 Hz), Geneva, 1989.