Open Access

ARTICLE

Simulation of Restraint Device Degradation of Long-Span Suspension Bridge Based on Finite Element Model

Qiaowei Ye¹, Ying Peng², Zihang Wang², Chao Deng², Xiang Xu², Yuan Ren^2,*

1 Nanjing Public Engineering Construction Center, Nanjing, 210019, China
2 School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

* Corresponding Author: Yuan Ren. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advanced Data Mining in Bridge Structural Health Monitoring)

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2025, 19(4), 851-868. https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2025.060906

Received 12 December 2024; Accepted 03 January 2025; Issue published 30 June 2025

Abstract

The girder end restraint devices such as bearings and dampers on long span suspension bridge will deteriorate over time. However, it is difficult to achieve the quantitative assessment of the performance of the restraint device through existing detection methods in actual inspections, making it difficult to obtain the impact of changes in the performance of the restraint device on the bridge structure. In this paper, a random vehicle load model is firstly established based on the WIM data of Jiangyin Bridge, and the displacement of girder end under the actual traffic flow is simulated by using finite element dynamic time history analysis. On this basis, according to the performance test data of the bearings and dampers, the performance degradation laws of the above two restraint devices are summarized, and the performance degradation process of the two restraint devices and the effects of different restraint parameters on the bridge structure are simulated. The results show that the performance degradation of the damper will significantly reduce the damping force at low speed, resulting in a significant increase in the cumulative displacement of the girder end; in the presence of longitudinal dampers, the increase in the friction coefficient caused by the deterioration of the bearing sliding plate has little effect on the cumulative displacement, but excessive wear of the bearing sliding plate adversely affects the structural dynamic performance.

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Keywords

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