Numerical analysis of vehicle-bridge coupling vibration concerning nonlinear stress-dependent damping

Damping is known to have a considerable influence on the dynamic behavior of bridges. The fixed damping ratios recommended in design codes do not necessarily represent the complicated damping characteristics of bridge structures. This study investigated the application of stress-dependent damping associated with vehicle-bridge coupling vibration and based on that investigation proposed the stress-dependent damping ratio. The results of the investigation show that the stress-dependent damping ratio is significantly different from the constant damping ratio (5%) defined in the standard specification. When vehicles travel at speeds of 30, 60, and 90, the damping ratios of the bridge model are 3.656%, 3.658%, and 3.671%, respectively. The peak accelerations using the regular damping ratio are 18.9%, 21.3%, and 14.5% of the stress-dependent damping ratio, respectively. When the vehicle load on the bridge is doubled, the peak acceleration of the mid-span node increases by 5.4 times, and the stress-related damping ratio increases by 2.1%. A corrugated steel-web bridge is being used as a case study, and the vibration response of the bridge is compared with the measured results. The acceleration response of the bridge which was calculated using the stress-dependent damping ratio is significantly closer to the measured acceleration response than that using the regular damping ratio.