Transportation Optimization of Ribbon Floating Bridges: Analytical and Experimental Investigation

Floating bridges are an economical and practical alternative for crossing water obstacles, especially in times of emergencies and conflicts. Ribbon pontoon floating bridges are a special type of floating bridge designed, built, stockpiled and deployed by the military and emergency management organizations in times of need. They are light-weight, fast to erect, and use the buoyancy of water to aid in supporting their self-weight and traffic loads imposed on the bridge. With increasing vehicular weights and fast bridge traversing time requirements, it has become necessary to develop reliable analytical tools capable of designing and analyzing floating bridges. It is critical to ensure that ribbon pontoon floating bridges can accommodate heavier vehicles, and at the same time reduce the spacing between successive vehicles to achieve greater transportation and economic efficiency. This paper presents the outline and results of an analytical and experimental research program designed to study the dynamic behavior of ribbon pontoon floating bridges under two-axle vehicular loading. An innovative experimental model was designed, constructed, and used in the experimental study. The developed analytical model predicted, with reasonable accuracy, maximum bridge displacements at different vehicle speeds and weights when compared with the experimental results.

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