Identification of Bridge-friendly Vehicles from Different Vehicle Frames

Abstract

It is well known that dynamic responses induced by in-motion vehicles on highway bridges are always greater than that of stationary vehicles. Such high dynamic responses would damage both bridge structure and road pavement. This prompts the need to study the causes of high dynamic responses. Many investigations have been conducted to identify the causes of high dynamic responses. Previous investigations show that parameters of both vehicle and bridge will cause high dynamic responses, e.g. road roughness and vehicle suspension. Much attention has been paid to study the causcs of the high dynamic responses induced by heavy lorries. Two types of vehicle hames are commonly used for heavy lorries, i.e. articulated and rigid. The present study aims to identify whether articulated vehicles or non-articulated vehicles are more bridge-friendly. On purpose of the identification of bridge-friendly vehicles, a comparative study has been made. In the comparative study, identification of the bridge friendly vehicle is made from comparing impact factors induced from both typcs of vehicle running across a medium span bridge with specific vehicle parametcrs covering a wide range of 3-axle heavy lorries. Results show that dynamic responses induced from the non-articulated vehicle are always greater than that of the articulated vehicle. Besides, the non-articulated vehicle would induce high impact factors than the articulated vehicle. As a result, the articulated vehicle is more bridge-fiiendly than the non-articulated vehicle.