Seismic Control of Tower-Pile System of Suspension Bridges Considering Soil-Structure Interaction under Near-Field Ground Motions

SHH Lavassani and H Alizadeh and R Doroudi, STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, 35, 707-722 (2025).

DOI: 10.1080/10168664.2024.2416941

The increased height of bridge towers makes them susceptible to ambient vibrations, such as ground motion excitation. Their seismic vibration may be intensified by the interaction of surrounding soil and the bridges, compelling us to consider these effects. Vibration control strategies can be employed in this case to avoid unfavourable seismic oscillations. In this study, the seismic response of the tower-pier system of the Golden Gate suspension bridge, considering the soil- structure interaction, was controlled by the tuned mass damper (TMD), magnetorheological damper (MR), and active tuned mass damper (ATMD) using fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) types I and II as the inference part. Four strong near-field ground motion records were consecutively imposed on the structure, and the control system was optimized using the Grey Wolf Optimizer algorithm. The analysis indicates that by increasing the softness of the soil, the maximum displacement increased, and the stored energy dissipation rate decreased. By softening the soil, the stored energy decreased during the time of the velocity pulse compared to the uncontrolled condition. Ultimately, the results indicated that the ATMD with FLC II was the most effective system for controlling the seismic vibration of a tower-pier system.

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