Experimental and numerical investigation of the earthquake response of crane bridges

The experimental and numerical response of crane bridges is studied in this work. To this end, an experimental campaign on a scale model of an overhead crane bridge was carried out on the shaking table of CEA/Saclay in France. A special similarity law has been used which preserves the ratios of seismic forces to friction forces and of seismic forces to gravity forces, without added masses. A numerical model, composed of beam elements, which takes into account non-linear effects, especially impact and friction, and simulates the earthquake response of the crane bridge, is presented. The comparison of experimental and analytical results gives an overall satisfactory agreement. Finally, a simplified model of the crane bridge, with only a few degrees of freedom is proposed.