Dynamic performance of slender suspension footbridges under eccentric walking dynamic loads

This paper treats the vibration of slender suspension footbridges caused by eccentrically distributed walking dynamic loads. A suspension footbridge model with reverse profiled cables in both the vertical and horizontal planes was used in this conceptual study, while SAP2000 package is adopted in the numerical analysis. The dynamic behaviour of slender footbridges under walking dynamic loads is simulated by resonant vibration caused by synchronous excitations. It is found that slender suspension footbridges with shallow cable profiles often have coupled vibration modes such as coupled lateral–torsional or coupled torsional–lateral modes. When these coupled vibration modes are excited by walking pedestrians, excessive lateral vibration can be induced. Results also show that the effects of the reverse profiled cables on the dynamic performance in different vibration modes are complex. Reverse profiled cables in the horizontal plane can significantly suppress the lateral vibration in coupled lateral–torsional modes, but slightly increase the lateral vibration in coupled torsional–lateral modes.