Identification of Vehicle-Bridge Interactive Forces from measured Bridge Responses: Theoretical Studies

Abstract

Information of the vehicle-bridge interaction force is an important parameter in the design and evaluation of highway bridges. However it is ditfficult to directly measure or accurately calculate the force which is a moving force. The objective of this paper is to explore the theory of force identification based on the response of the structure to acquire a time history of the moving force. The force will be identified in time domain using a modal superposition method. A moving force on a simply supported beam is simulated, and the computational results show that the method is noise sensitive, and yet acceptable results can be obtained by combining the use of vibration data of the bending moment and acceleration measurements.