Dynamic Analysis of a Pontoon-Separated Floating Bridge Subjected to a Moving Load

For the design and operation of a floating bridge, the understanding of its dynamic behavior under a moving load is of great importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic performances of a new type floating bridge, the pontoon-separated floating bridge, under the effect of a moving load. In the paper, a brief summary of the dynamic analysis of the floating bridge is first introduced. The motion equations for a pontoon-separated floating bridge, considering the nonlinear properties of connectors arid vehicles' inertia effects, are proposed. The super-element method is applied to reduce the numerical analysis scale to solve the reduced equations. Based on the static analysis, the dynamic features of the new type floating bridge subjected to a moving load are investigated It is found that the dynamic behavior of the pontoon-separated floating bridge is superior to that of the ribbon bridge by taking the nonlinearity of connectors into account.