Investigation of traffic-induced vibrations on a historic swing bridge in Italy

This work presents a study on a very peculiar bridge, the “St. Francesco da Paola” swing bridge in Taranto, with the aim to investigate the problem of vertical traffic-induced vibrations and their effects on pedestrians. A wide monitoring ambient vibration testing has been conducted on the bridge, in order to obtain useful data for identification of modal parameters and analysis of vibration level. A detailed finite element 3D-model has been realized on the basis of survey and design data; then a model updating has been calibrated with experimental data. The vertical vibrations have been compared to reference values from technical standards/literature in order to estimate the vibration level, and a probabilistic approach has been adopted to evaluate the pedestrian comfort. © 2015, North Atlantic University Union