Buffeting Response of a Long-Suspension Bridge Considering the Effects of a Changing Climate

With the continuous increase of the suspension bridge spans, the wind-induced vibrations will pose serious problems to the structural integrity and serviceability. Among the many vibration sources of long-span bridges, buffeting, which results from the impinging turbulence, affects the fatigue life of the bridge structure and might lead, when coupled with other wind-induced loads, to severe structural problems. With climate change, the buffeting-induced risk might significantly increase due to higher wind speeds and turbulence intensities. Therefore, it is important to assess the buffeting response under changing climate scenarios. In this study, the buffeting response of a single-span suspension bridge is investigated in the frequency domain under the worst-case climate scenario RCP 8.5 using the quasi-steady theory and the strip assumption. The performance-based wind engineering approach is implemented here to evaluate the risk values corresponding to several limit states. The suspension bridge is modeled based on the theory of continuous beams. The velocity fluctuations were generated based on the von Karman spectrum. The lateral, vertical, and torsional displacement response spectrums were generated. The simulation results indicated a significant increase in the buffeting response of a long-suspension bridge because of climate change.