Experimental validation and assessment of truss-type footbridge due to human loads

Many footbridges have natural frequencies that coincide with the dominant frequencies of the pedestrian-induced load and therefore they have a potential to suffer excessive vibrations under dynamic loads induced by pedestrians. The main focus of this paper is on the serviceability assessment of a truss-type footbridge by the dynamic test and numerical analysis. Firstly, the design criteria proposed by widely used standards were introduced. Secondly, the dynamic analysis of the truss-type footbridge in the urban of Tianjin was performed on 3D FEM model using the ANSYS program system. An attempt to model the load imposed by a crowd of pedestrians resulted in displacements and accelerations that are compared with serviceability criteria. The dynamic tests of the bridge induced by random vibration and pedestrians were also performed and the results were used to verify the dynamic analysis. Finally, the serviceability assessment was conducted by the results of tests and numerical analysis.