Reliability Analysis of Suspension Bridges against Buffeting Failure

As the span of suspension bridges become longer, the wind effects on them also become more important. In long-span suspension bridges,there are two typical windinduced aerodynamic phenomena: flutter and buffeting. In this paper, the reliability of the suspension bridges against buffeting failure is presented using the concept of PRA (probability risk analysis) procedure and the basic reliability analysis method. For this purpose, the bending stresses are calculated at critical nodes of the bridge deck along the bridge span. Many sources of uncertainties are considered. These uncertainties are incorporated by a set of random multiplying factors in the limit-state function. The results of the parametric study show that ductility of the system has a significant effect on the reliability against buffeting failure.

Keywords:

Suspension bridges , reliability analysis , buffeting failure , ductility