NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON RANDOM TRAFFIC-BRIDGE COUPLED VIBRATION USING CELLULAR AUTOMATON-BASED MICROSCOPIC SIMULATION

A numerical delicacy method for random traffic-bridge coupled vibration analysis is proposed. Incorporating the classical vehicle-bridge interaction theory, it is a newly established multi-axle single-cell cellular automaton (MSCA)-based microscopic traffic load simulation approach. The utilized equations and models in the classical vehicle-bridge interaction theory are introduced. The concepts and routes of the realization of MSCA for vehicle-bridge coupled dynamic analysis are proposed, and the relevant code program is developed. An engineering example with measured time-history dynamic deflections is utilized to verify the accuracy of the vehicle-bridge interaction analysis by MSCA. MSCA is used to analyze the dynamic load effects of a cable-stayed bridge under the excitation of random traffic loads, to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed approach. The results indicate that MSCA has good accuracy in vehicle-bridge coupling analysis. The maximum error in the engineering example is 11.6%. The static and dynamic time-history deflections of the cable-stayed bridge under random traffic loads show that they have good consistency, and the difference between them becomes more significant along with the increase in the pavement roughness grade. These prove the reliability of the proposed model and method in the random traffic-bridge coupled vibration analysis. This study forwards MSCA's ability to analyze various types of dynamic load effects of bridges under the excitation of random traffic flow, which provides more applications of MSCA in monitoring and evaluation of real bridges.