Dynamic behavior of damaged concrete bridge structures under moving vehicular loads

The dynamic behavior of damaged reinforced concrete bridge structures under moving vehicular loads is studied. The vehicle is modeled as a moving mass or by a four degrees-of-freedom system with linear suspensions and tires flexibility, and the bridge is modeled as a continuous Euler–Bernoulli beam simply supported at both ends. The damage may or may not be varying when the load is moving on top, and a damage function representing either the open crack model or the breathing model is used to model the crack zone in the reinforced concrete beam. An experimental test is performed on a reinforced concrete beam with Tee-section subjected to vehicular loadings to check on the performance of the crack models. Effect of other parameters like the moving speed of vehicle and road surface roughness are included in the simulation study, and the dynamic deflection, relative frequency change (RFC), absolute frequency change (AFC) and phase plot of the responses are studied for their possible correlation with the damage modeled as open crack or breathing crack.