TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE -

FAILURE
GROUP NO – 3
ARAVIND R – CE14B006
DHYANESHWARAN – CE13B064
 INTRODUCTION
• Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge was constructed in
the Washington D.C., a state in United States, that
connected the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound
between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula.
• The designer of this suspension bridge was Leon
Moissieff. He was consultant engineer for ‘Golden Gate’,
‘Bronx - Whitestone’ & ‘San Francisco – Oakland bay
bridge’.
• This bridge collapsed just four months after its
construction.
• It was world’s 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world
at the time of its failure.
 IMPORTANT NUMERICAL FACTS

• Total structure length was 5939 ft with 5000 ft

suspension span and it consisted of three spans, one
central suspension span or deck and two short
suspension spans one each side. Lengths of spans were
as follows:

1. 1st Short Suspension Span (1100 ft)

2. Central Span (2800 ft)
3. 2nd Short Suspension Span (1100 ft)
 IMPORTANT NUMERICAL FACTS

• Center span (Height above water) = 195 feet

• Width of roadway = 26 feet
• Width of sidewalk (On each side) = 5 feet
• Height of East Pier = 247 feet
• Height of West Pier = 198 feet
• Height, Towers above piers = 425 feet
 Main Cable Main Towers Deck

W N

S E

Center Span

1st Short Span 2nd Short Span

Anchorage
Bridge at the time of its inauguration ceremony, 1940
Movements during Construction
• A small movement in deck of bridge was noted many
times by workers even during the construction of the
bridge when wind blew. A small vibration could be
expected in a bridge but vibrations produced in this
bridge were not normal.
• Engineers were aware that bridge was prone to motion.
• Retrofitting to design, as bridge construction progressed,
by new ideas from engineers was also done.
 Prevention of Movements
• Retrofitting of bridge, to avoid the movements and
stiffen the bridge, as mentioned earlier was done by
installing hydraulic jacks and tie down cables.

Tie-down cables
 DAMAGE
• Main cables:
During the collapse, the main suspension cables
were thrown violently side to side, twisted, and
tossed 100 feet into the air. They slipped from
their positions in the cable saddles atop each
tower. On the north cable at mid-span, where the
cable band loosened, it broke more than 350
wires. Other wires were severely stressed and
distorted.
• Suspender cables:
The violent collapse broke many suspender
cables. Some were lost, some severely damaged,
and some undamaged.
 DAMAGE
• Towers:
The main towers, including the bracing struts, were
twisted and bent. Stress beyond the elastic limit of the
metal resulted in buckling and permanent distortion.
• Deck-Floor System:
The concrete and steel of the centre span that now lay
on the bottom of the Narrows was deemed a total loss.
The remainder of the broken concrete on the side
spans needed removal. The floor system had sections
that were bent and overstressed.
 DAMAGE
• Side Spans:
The loss of the centre section, followed by the dropping of the side
spans, caused substantial damage. The events stressed and
distorted the plate girders and floor beams. Some buckled beyond
repair.

• Piers:
Both the West Pier (#4) and the East Pier (#5) sustained no damage.
The collapse of the centre span caused partial sheering of rivets
that attached the towers to the tops of the piers.

• Anchorages:
The anchorages for the main cables were undamaged. For building
a replacement bridge, removal of part of the concrete would be
necessary in order to spin the new main cables.
Various Damages in Bridge
 FAILURE
• Twisting of deck of the bridge when there was a
wind action.
• “Tacoma Narrows was made with wind-
resisting plate girders rather than deep
stiffening trusses.”
 Failure
• Bridge was too skinny, fragile and flexible. It had only two
lanes, less mass.
• The wind exerted a lot of pressure, assisted by more and
more severe aerodynamic forces, and made waves which
caused the bridge to twist and collapse in water.
• During the collapse, the main suspension cables were
thrown violently side to side, twisted, and tossed many
feet into the air.
• On the north cable at mid-span, where the support cable
had loosened, it broke more than 350 wires.
 FAILURE
Several reasons were attributed to the failure but later
with the advanced studies the reasons were found to be
interlinked with each other.
• The fundamental weakness of the Tacoma Narrows
Bridge, was its "great flexibility, vertically and in
torsion." Several factors contributed to the excessive
flexibility: The deck was too light. The deck was too
shallow at 8 feet (a 1/350 ratio with the centre span).
The cables were anchored at too great a distance from
the side spans. The width of the deck was extremely
narrow compared with its centre span length, an
unprecedented ratio of 1 to 72.
 FAILURE
• The cable band at centre-span on the north cable slipped. This allowed
the cable to separate into two unequal segments. That contributed to the
change from vertical (up-and-down) to torsional (twisting) movement of
the bridge deck.
• Also contributing to the torsional motion of the bridge deck was "vortex
shedding." In brief, vortex shedding occurred in the Narrows Bridge as
follows:

1. Wind separated as it struck the side of deck, the 8-foot solid plate girder.
A small amount twisting occurred in the bridge deck.
2. The twisting bridge deck caused the wind flow separation to increase.
This formed a vortex, or swirling wind force, which further lifted and
twisted the deck.
3. The deck structure resisted this lifting and twisting. It had a natural
tendency to return to its previous position. As it returned, its speed and
direction matched the lifting force. In other words, it moved " in
phase" with the vortex. Then, the wind reinforced that motion. This
produced a "lock-on" event.
 FAILURE
Torsional Flutter:
"Flutter" is a self-induced harmonic vibration
pattern. The structure absorbed more wind energy.
The bridge deck's twisting motion began to control
the wind vortex so the two were synchronized. The
structure's twisting movements became self-
generating. The forces acting on the bridge were no
longer caused by wind. The bridge deck's own
motion produced the forces.
Torsional Flutter
 FAILURE
• Due to vortex shedding and torsional
fluttering the vibrations produced more
energy than the holding limits of the bridge.
Thus structural integrity of bridge was lost.
 LESSONS LEARNT
• Use open stiffening trusses which would allow
the wind free passage through the bridge.
• Increase the width to span ratio.
• Increase the weight of the bridge.
• Dampen the bridge Use an un-tuned dynamic
damper to limit the motions of the bridge.
• Increase the stiffness and depth of the trusses
or girders Streamline the deck of the bridge
THANK YOU