Microsimulation Evaluation of Eurocode Load Model for American Long-Span Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 12
Abstract
The ability to accurately predict traffic loading is essential for cost-effective bridge maintenance and repair programs. The traffic load model currently used in the United States for the design of long-span bridges was developed over three decades ago. In the meantime, vehicle characteristics and traffic patterns have changed. The Eurocode for traffic loading is more recent, but was calibrated only for bridges up to 200 m long. In this work, weigh-in-motion traffic records from 11 different sites across Alabama are used to establish congested traffic loading. Traffic microsimulation is used to generate congestion based on real traffic data. Influence lines for two typical long-span bridges, one cable-stayed bridge, and one suspension bridge are determined using finite-element models. These are used in the microsimulation model to estimate the bridge-load effects caused by congested traffic. These results are extrapolated to find the characteristic lifetime maximum values that are used to evaluate the Eurocode load model to assess its suitability for long-span bridges. In a similar way, the current American load model for long-span bridges, commonly known as the ASCE model, is evaluated to see if it accurately reflects the congested traffic loading that is currently found on American highways. Recent research has suggested the use of the AASHTO HL-93 load model to estimate the effects of traffic loading on long-span bridges, and this model is also evaluated in this work.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the Dublin Institute of Technology ABBEST Scholarship Programme for funding this research and also the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation for supplying the WIM traffic data.
References
AASHTO. (2001). A policy on geometric design of highways and streets, Washington, DC.
AASHTO. (2007). America’s freight challenge, Washington, DC.
Bruls, A., Croce, P., Sanpaolesi, L., and Sedlacek, G. (1996). “ENV1991 – Part 3: Traffic loads on bridges; calibration of load models for road bridges.” Proc., IABSE Colloquium, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), Zurich, Switzerland, 439–453.
Buckland, P. G. (1981). “Recommended design loads for bridges.” J. Struct. Div., 107(7), 1161–1213.
Buckland, P. G. (1991). “North American and British long-span bridge loads.” J. Struct. Eng., 117(10), 2972–2987.
Buckland, P. G., McBryde, J. P., Navin, F. P. D., and Zidek, J. V. (1978). “Traffic loading of long span bridges.” Transportation Research Record 665, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 146–154.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2006). Transportation Statistics Annual Rep., DOT, Washington, DC.
Caprani, C. C. (2010). “Using microsimulation to estimate highway bridge traffic load.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety, and Management, CRC Press, Delft, Netherlands.
Caprani, C. C. (2012). “Calibration of a congestion load model for highway bridges using traffic microsimulation.” Struct. Eng. Int., 22(3), 342–348.
Caprani, C. C., and OBrien, E. J. (2008). “The governing form of traffic for highway bridge loading.” Proc., 4th Symp. on Bridge and Infrastructure Research in Ireland, E. Cannon, R. West, and P. Fanning, eds., National Univ. of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, 53–60.
Carey, C., Caprani, C. C., and Enright, B. (2012). “Reducing traffic loading on long-span bridges by means of lane-changing restrictions.” Proc., Bridge and Concrete Research in Ireland, ECOCEM, Dublin, Ireland, 331–336.
Coles, S. G. (2001). An introduction to statistical modelling of extreme values, Springer, London.
Cremona, C., and Carracilli, J. (1998). “Evaluation of extreme traffic loads effects in cable stayed and suspension bridges by use of WIM records.” Proc., 2nd European Conf. on Weigh-in-Motion of Road Vehicles, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 243–251.
Crespo-Minguillón, C., and Casas, J. R. (1997). “A comprehensive traffic load model for bridge safety checking.” Struct. Saf., 19(4), 339–359.
Croce, P., and Salvatore, W. (1998). “Stochastic modelling of traffic loads for long-span bridges.” IABSE Symp., Long-Span and High-Rise Structures, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), Zurich, Switzerland, 427–434.
Croce, P., and Salvatore, W. (2001). “Stochastic model for multilane traffic effects on bridges.” J. Bridge Eng., 6(2), 136–143.
Ditlevsen, O., and Madsen, H. (1994). “Stochastic vehicle-queue-load model for large bridges.” J. Eng. Mech., 120(9), 1829–1847.
Douglas, W. H., and Richard, K. R. (2003). “Review of truck characteristics as factors in roadway design.” National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Rep. 505, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
European Committee for Standardization (CEN). (2003). “Actions on structures, part 1.2.” Eurocode 1, Brussels, Belgium.
Finley, R. C. (2005). “Sidney Lanier Bridge receives honor award.” Segments, Vol. 46, American Segmental Bridge Institute, Buda, TX, 4–5.
Flint, A. R., and Jacob, B. A. (1996). “Extreme traffic loads on road bridges and target values for their effects for code calibration.” Proc., IABSE Colloquium, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), Zurich, Switzerland, 469–478.
Flint and Neill Partnership. (1986). “Interim design standard: Long span bridge loading.” Contractor Rep. 16, Crowthorne, London.
Freeman, I. (1925). “A general form of the suspension bridge catenary.” Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 31(8), 425–429.
Harman, D. J., Davenport, A. G., and Wong, W. S. S. (1984). “Traffic loads on medium and long-span bridges.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 11(3), 556–573.
Helbing, D., Hennecke, A., Shvetsov, V., and Treiber, M. (2002). “Micro- and macrosimulation of freeway traffic.” Math. Comput. Model., 35(5–6), 517–547.
Ivy, R. J., Lin, T. Y., Mitchell, S., Raab, N. C., Richey, V. J., and Scheffey, C. F. (1953). “Live loading for long-span highway bridges.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 119(1), 981–994.
Kesting, A., Treiber, M., and Helbing, D. (2007). “General lane-changing model MOBIL for car-following models.” Transportation Research Record 1999, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 86–94.
Nowak, A. S., and Hong, Y.-K. (1991). “Bridge live-load models.” J. Struct. Eng., 117(9), 2757–2767.
Nowak, A. S., Lutomirska, M., and Sheikh Ibrahim, F. I. (2010). “The development of live load for long-span bridges.” Bridge Struct. -Assess. Des. Constr., 6(1–2), 73–79.
OBrien, E. J., Hayrapetova, A., and Walsh, C. (2010). “The use of micro-simulation for congested traffic load modelling of medium- and long-span bridges.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng., 8(3), 269–276.
Podolny, W., Jr. (1999). Cable-suspended bridges–Structural steel designer’s handbook, 3rd Ed., McGraw Hill, Columbus, OH.
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). (2005). “Sidney Lanier Bridge.” 〈http://www.gcpci.org/index.cfm/applications/infrastructure〉 (Jun. 12, 2012).
Sameul, K. F. (2007). “The study on San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.” Proc., Bridge Engineering 2 Conf., Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Univ. of Bath, Bath, U.K., 1–10.
Treiber, M., Hennecke, A., and Helbing, D. (2000a). “Congested traffic states in empirical observations and microscopic simulations.” Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics, 62(2), 1805–1824.
Treiber, M., Hennecke, A., and Helbing, D. (2000b). “Microscopic simulation of congested traffic.” Traffic and granular flow ’99, D. Helbing, H. J. Herrmann, M. Schreckenberg, and D. E. Wolf, eds., Springer, Berlin, 365–376.
Vrouwenvelder, A. C. W. M., and Waarts, P. H. (1993). “Traffic loads on bridges.” Struct. Eng. Int., 3(3), 169–177.
Walther, R., Houriet, B., Isler, W., Moia, P., and Klein, J. F. (1999). Cable-stayed bridges, 2nd Ed., Thomas Telford, London.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 24, 2013
Accepted: Jul 25, 2013
Published online: Aug 12, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.