Stochastic vibration of the vehicle–bridge system subject to non-uniform ground motions

Abstract

A study of a train moving along a cable-stayed bridge is performed by considering both the stationary track irregularity and a non-stationary earthquake. A detailed bridge model with 3972 degrees of freedom is established while the train model consists of two locomotives and eight carriages. The equations of motion of the coupled system are obtained by using the displacement continuous condition at the contact, with track irregularities. The earthquake is assumed to occur once the train has entered the bridge. The pseudo-excitation method is used to find the random responses of the coupled system, and the results indicate that the effect of the earthquake is much greater than that of the track irregularities. The paper discusses the influence of the intensity of the earthquake, the wave propagation velocity, the speed of the train, and the dynamic interaction between the vehicles and the bridge.

Keywords:

• vehicle–bridge system
• earthquake
• track irregularity
• non-stationary
• pseudo-excitation method

Funding

The authors are grateful for support from the National Science Foundation of China [grant number 11172056], from the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University [NCET-10-0288], from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [DUT13ZD(G)04] and from the Cardiff University Advanced Chinese Engineering Centre.