The Soil-Structure Interaction in Bridge Dynamics Problems

At the Bridges Department of Leningrad Institute of Railway Communication Engineers complex investigations of bridge dynamics under the seismic and rolling stock loads had been carried out. It is ascertained that for theoretical description of bridge oscillations the question of piers-base interaction is a matter of principal importance. During the process of oscillations there is a loss of energy due to the radiation by the propagation of elastic waves in the soil. These losses of energy considerably exceed the hysteresis ones, especially for bridges with metal span structures. Researches carried out allowed to make the theoretical estimation of the general factor of the span structure dynamics, to work out design technique for bridge piers and span structures under seismic loads (both according to the method of spectral analysis and with the use of the earthquake accelerograms), to predict the consequences of the local oscillations of bridge elements