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Abstract: A 142-m, three-span continuous footbridge over the Esino River (Italy) is considered as a case study to illustrate a number of chal-
lenging aspects in its static and dynamic design. The adoption of an optimized steel deck with a variable cross section together with the use of
external prestressing tendons in the central span allows a substantial reduction of structural weights. The resulting footbridge requires a proper
model for the assessment of its behavior up to the ultimate limit state as well as attention to vibration control under pedestrian loading at the
service limit state. The former issue is addressed through the use of a specifically developed material and geometric nonlinear finite-element
formulation. Regarding vibration control, an original combination of two different systems is used, i.e., high damping rubber (HDR) stripes
and tuned mass dampers (TMDs). The HDR stripes, applied between the steel deck and the concrete floor, increase the overall damping of the
footbridge, whereas the TMDs significantly reduce the accelerations at the most critical frequencies. The design of this nonconventional solu-
tion for vibration control is discussed, and the results of experimental tests in the early stage of the footbridge construction are illustrated. The
experimental results allow the validation of the structural model used in the design as well as the evaluation of the influence of the HDR stripes
and of the nonstructural components on the modal properties of the completed footbridge, permitting fine-tuning of the TMDs before they are
installed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000842. © 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Fig. 1. Esino footbridge, as seen from the near road bridge (image by Andrea Dall’Asta)
Fig. 3. Cross sections: (a) piers; (b) tendon deviators; (c) midspan
Static Design devices on the South pier, whereas those placed on the North pier and
on the abutments are free to slide in the longitudinal direction. Thus,
the transverse horizontal forces are contrasted by all the substructures,
Structural Scheme and Deck Geometry
whereas the longitudinal horizontal forces are adsorbed only by one
The structural scheme of the Esino footbridge is a three-span continu- pier.
ous beam with two equal lateral spans of 33 m and a central span of 76 The deck cross section consists of a steel box with variable ge-
m for a total length of 142 m. The ratio between the central and lateral ometry with depth and width increased toward the piers [Fig. 3(a)]
span lengths permits transferring the load almost exclusively to the and strongly reduced in the central span [Figs. 3(b and c)] on
piers, minimizing the force transferred to the abutments so that the which external prestressing tendons are adopted. The vertical and
embankments are not altered. The deck is restrained by fixed bearing horizontal paths of the tendons are profiled to counteract the
Static Response
Nonlinear analyses are made to predict the global static behavior
of the footbridge under increasing vertical loads. In this way the
expected deflections and the safety margin at the ultimate limit
state are assessed with the inclusion of the nonlinear material
behavior of the cross section and of the tendons, the increment of Fig. 6. Bending moment diagram at design load and at collapse load
traction in the tendons caused by the footbridge deformations, and
the nonlinear geometric effects in the beam-tendon system.
Selected results are reported for the combination with the smallest limit state that governs the footbridge static design. Fig. 5 illus-
collapse load, i.e., variable loads in the central span only. Fig. 4 trates the variation of the resultant tendon traction in nondimen-
illustrates the applied load versus the vertical displacement in the sional units, i.e., the design load multiplier versus the ratio
central span in nondimensional units, i.e., as a multiplier of the between the tendon traction and its traction at yielding. It can be
factored design permanent and variable vertical loads as a func- observed that the increment of tendon force at collapse, evaluated
tion of the ratio between midspan deflection of the central span considering that the tendons are free to slip at deviators, is remark-
and its length. It is observed that the footbridge is in the elastic able. Nevertheless, the tendons remain in the elastic range with an
range when the design loads are attained and the collapse load is ample margin up to the collapse load level. In Fig. 6 the flexural
significantly higher than the design load. This is a consequence of moment diagrams at the design load and at collapse are reported
the restrictions given by the deformability condition at that service to evaluate the redistribution of flexural moments caused by the
Dynamic Design
DL3 (second peak from the left in Fig. 13). The value obtained by
the harmonic analysis is asymptotically reached after a very large
number of cycles. Nevertheless, the acceleration limit value is
exceeded after just a few cycles. Consequently, these numerical
results confirm that the conveyance of pedestrians is not ensured.
To obtain an acceptable behavior of the bridge at the service limit
state some mitigation criteria must be adopted. Such a design
requirement is pursued in this case study through the use of a double
mitigation system.
The first system consists of placing HDR stripes between the RC
slab and the steel girder. When the deck deflects, the rubber stripes
are subjected to shear strains so that they are able to dissipate energy
through hysteretic cycles. In this way an increment of the damping
coefficient of the structure can be achieved, and a global reduction
of the acceleration spectra can consequently be obtained for all fre-
quencies. This technique of introducing a damping layer (usually a
Fig. 14. Acceleration response spectra for distributed loads (moni-
viscoelastic layer) between two structural components acting in par-
tored Point B)
allel was used for the mitigation of human-induced vibrations in dif-
ferent contexts, e.g., building floors (Ebrahimpour and Sack 2005),
and has been known in mechanical engineering applications since
conservative. To investigate this aspect, a time history analysis is the 1960s in composite panel vibration mitigation (Ungar and
performed to simulate the footbridge response when a limited num- Kerwin 1962).
ber of cycles is considered. For example, Fig. 16 reports the time The second system consists of three TMDs installed inside the
history of the acceleration related to Point A and load distribution steel box and tuned with the critical vibration modes of the structure
(5)
dynamic loads acting at the natural frequencies of the original sys- 1þm
tem can be drastically reduced. More specifically, each peak accel-
eration becomes two minor peak accelerations (a1 and a2), which sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
3m
correspond to the in-phase and the out-of-phase motion of the TMD j opt ¼ (6)
with respect to the bridge. The accelerations corresponding to the 8ð1 þ m Þ3
dynamic loads at the other frequencies do not vary considerably.
It is important to remark that these design criteria may also be
Table 3. Properties of the Designed TMDs used for multi–degree of freedom systems by introducing the con-
cept of generalized mass corresponding to the mode at which the
TMD number m (kg) k (kN/m) f (Hz) j dmax (cm)
TMD is tuned. The generalized mass must be determined by a shape
1 800 58 1.36 0.13 1 function, which assumes the unitary value at the TMD position.
2 800 75.3 1.55 0.13 1.4 This procedure is accurate if the modal shapes of the original system
3 800 194.25 2.48 0.13 2.25 do not change very much when the TMD devices are introduced.
This hypothesis is realistic if the TMD mass is remarkably smaller
than the original system mass. For this reason small values of m are
Table 4. Peak Accelerations with TMDs suitable, which can also be obtained using more than one device
placed at different points of the structure to protect the critical fre-
TMD number a1 (m/s2) a2 (m/s2)
quencies. In this case study three TMDs are used, one for each of
1 0.05 0.06 the most critical frequencies. More specifically, the three most criti-
2 0.20 0.25 cal frequencies are those of transverse mode (TMD1) and of the sec-
3 0.30 0.50 ond (TMD2) and third (TMD3) vertical modes. To maximize the
effects, the three TMDs are located approximately at the position in
which the modal shape relevant to the protected mode attains its
maximum value (Fig. 19). To simplify the design of the TMDs, the
same mass (800 kg) and the same values of a and j are assumed for
all the devices. In particular, the value a = 1 is assumed to determine
the TMD’s frequency, and the value 0.13 (larger than the optimal
value) is assumed for the damping coefficient, to make the construc-
tion of the devices feasible. The characteristics of the devices are
reported in Table 3, where m = mass, k = stiffness, f = frequency,
j is the damping coefficient of the TMD, and dmax is the maxi-
mum displacement of the TMD. The peak accelerations a1 and a2
obtained by introducing the TMD devices (the in-phase and the
out-of-phase motion of the TMD with respect to the bridge) are
reported in Table 4. It is noted that the two peaks are not equal
given that the assumed TMD parameters are not exactly the opti-
mal design values. Nevertheless, these two peaks are notably
smaller than the peak acceleration obtained without TMDs and
Fig. 20. Acceleration response spectra of the footbridge with and smaller than the tolerability limits imposed. The final result is
without additional dissipative devices (Point A, DL3) illustrated in Fig. 20, which plots the accelerations measured at
the middle of the central span for the third critical frequency of
Fig. 21. Plane and lateral view of the positions of the accelerometers
Fig. 22. Acceleration power spectra calculated from the recorded vibration data in Phases 1 and 2
Mode number Phase 1 f (Hz) Phase 2 f (Hz) Df1–2 (%) MAC (%) Mode number fexp (Hz) fnum (Hz) Dfexp-num (%)
1 1.41 1.22 −13.59 93.85 1 1.22 1.25 −2.46
2 1.63 1.45 −11.31 90.01 2 1.45 1.47 −1.38
3 2.14 1.90 −11.44 91.98 3 1.90 2.03 −6.84
4 3.44 2.97 −13.55 94.60 4 2.97 3.12 −5.05
Dall'Asta, A., and Zona, A. (2005). “Finite element model for externally
TMDs are required to further reduce the acceleration peaks at the prestressed composite beams with deformable connection.” J. Struct.
most critical frequencies. Possible discrepancies between the Eng., 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2005)131:5(706), 706–714.
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as by the presence of nonstructural elements must be assessed. Ebrahimpour, A., and Sack L. R. (2005). “A review of vibration service-
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response of the footbridge becomes essential to validate the design
Fujino, Y., Pacheco, B. M., Nakamura, S., and Warnitchai, P. (1993).
model and to calibrate the vibration control systems, avoiding that “Synchronization of human walking observed during lateral vibration of
their design is based merely on numerical simulations. For this rea- a congested pedestrian bridge.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 22(9),
son the design of the footbridge illustrated in this case study is sup- 741–758.
ported by experimental dynamic tests performed at two different Li, Q., Fan, J., Nie, J., Li, Q., and Chen, Y. (2010). “Crowd-induced random
stages: (1) steel girder alone with its external prestressing to vali- vibration of footbridge and vibration control using multiple tuned mass
date the girder model and (2) completed footbridge including the dampers.” J. Sound Vib., 329(19), 4068–4092.
HDR stripes and the nonstructural components to permit a revision Magalhães, F., Cunha, A., Caetano, E., Brincker, R. (2010). “Damping estima-
of the dynamic model and a fine calibration of the TMD parame- tion using free decays and ambient vibration tests.” Mechan. Syst. Sig.
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ters before their installation. Peeters, B., Van der Auweraer, H., Guillaume, P., and Leuridan, J. (2004).
“The PolyMAX frequency-domain method: a new standard for modal
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