Numerical modelling for performance assessment of bridges including VBI

Numerical simulations focusing on Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI) are pivotal for enhancing our comprehension of bridge safety and longevity. Such simulations are intricate, encapsulating a broad spectrum of influences including traffic loads, environmental factors, and roadway conditions. Traffic loads, a fundamental aspect, impose varying degrees of operational stress on bridges, characterized by diverse magnitudes and frequencies. Environmental factors, such as fluctuations in temperature, wind forces, and seismic activities, pose additional long-term challenges to structural integrity. Road roughness also plays a critical role, impacting both vehicle performance and the bridge's structural health. Through the meticulous incorporation of these variables into numerical simulations, engineers and researchers can adeptly predict and scrutinize the multifaceted interactions between vehicles and bridges under authentic operational scenarios. This analytical approach fosters more robust design methodologies, improved maintenance protocols, and heightened safety standards, underscoring the indispensable value of comprehensive VBI simulations within contemporary structural engineering paradigms. This research delves into an exhaustive numerical examination of VBI, spotlighting the adoption of a beam finite element model poised for integration into a broader VBI analytical framework. The investigative journey spans from simple one-dimensional analyses to more sophisticated three-dimensional beam models that account for shear deformation and torsional dynamics. A notable aspect of this research addresses the calibration of vehicle dynamics, bridging a gap in existing literature concerning finite element model implementations and vehicle dynamics definition. Vehicle dynamic definition based on the processing data made available by Weigh in Motion Databases facilitates a systematic approach to traffic pattern analysis. The study further extends to evaluate environmental influences, including temperature variations. Furthermore, the development of the \textit{Ghost project}, a C++ based finite element analysis software, marks a significant stride towards simulating VBI scenarios, accommodating diverse traffic configurations and analytical approaches. This work showcases several numerical simulations, each exploring varied traffic conditions and methodological perspectives, to evaluate the framework's efficacy and precision. These simulations entail a comparative analysis of direct and indirect VBI methodologies, focusing on the interplay between driving frequencies, environmental factors, and their cumulative effects on both bridge structures and vehicular dynamics. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to assess the effectiveness of a numerical framework rooted in beam model finite element formulations for VBI simulations. Through this research, the aim is to provide a comprehensive tool that bridges the gap between computational efficiency and modeling fidelity, thereby offering practical insights into bridge design, vehicle dynamics, and structural analysis, in order to obtain an estimate of bridges responses under several scenarios. This endeavor underscores the significance of a holistic approach to VBI simulations, promising substantial advancements in the field of structural engineering.