Citation

Green MF. Heavy Vehicle Syst. 1996; 3(1-4): 165-179.

Affiliation

Queen's Univ, Kingston, Ont, Can

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper compares the theoretical effects of different heavy vehicle suspension designs on the dynamic response of highway bridges. Experimentally validated vehicle and bridge models are combined to predict dynamic bridge responses. This paper emphasizes the comparison of a leaf-sprung vehicle with an air-sprung vehicle. Bridges are chosen so that one bridge corresponds with the low frequency modes of the leaf-sprung vehicle (3.2 Hz), and one bridge corresponds to the low frequency modes of the air-sprung vehicle (1.6 Hz). In addition, because air-sprung vehicles apply relatively high dynamic loads in the wheel-hop mode, this study considers one bridge with a natural frequency of 12 Hz. The effects of two different bridge surface profiles are examined. One profile has a discrete irregularity (eg. an expansion joint) and the other has a pseudo-random roughness. For the profiles considered, the air-sprung vehicle is found to be more `bridge-friendly' than the leaf-sprung vehicle.