Field Testing of the Wolf Creek Curved Girder Bridge: Part I: Vibration Tests

摘要

The Wolf Creek Bridge is a curved, multi-girder three span steel composite bridge located south of Narrows, Virginia, that was completed in 2006. A finite element model of the bridge revealed that pier flexibility may be important in modeling the bridge. In addition, questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of the C15x33 diaphragms in providing lateral transfer of loads between members. This study was conducted as Phase I of a project for which the overall goal was to use field testing to obtain a better understanding of the behavior of multi-span curved girder bridges. An array of vertically oriented accelerometers was located along the inner and outer edges of the bridge, along with radially oriented accelerometers along the outer edge, a tangentially oriented accelerometer on the outer edge, and an additional vertical accelerometer placed in the middle of the center span. Dynamic response data were collected under a variety of excitations, including sinusoidal forcing induced by an electro-dynamic shaker, impulse loadings at various locations, and several different vehicular loads.