ABSTRACT
The present paper focuses on the dynamic identification and the vibration serviceability assessment of a historic suspension footbridge through experimental and numerical studies. The experimental part of the study includes field surveys to determine geometric properties, ambient vibration tests to estimate the dynamic properties, and assessment of the dynamic response of the footbridge to crossing a single pedestrian. Four ambient vibration tests with different measurement setup arrangements were carried out to determine the dynamic characteristics of the footbridge. Then, an initial 3D Finite Element (FE) model was established and calibrated based on ambient vibration test results. The numerical model generally showed a good agreement with experimental results; therefore, the model is adopted to compare the experimentally-estimated vibration level to a single pedestrian crossing with the numerical one, modelling the single pedestrian as a moving harmonic load. Furthermore, vibration serviceability assessment of the footbridge under multi-pedestrians loading is carried out numerically.
