Experimental Investigation of Water Loading for an Inclined Bridge due to Flood Overtopping

The potential for bridges being overtopped due to flooding is increasing with climate change. Rather than increasing the elevation of bridges, it is becoming more common to design for the superstructure to withstand the hydrodynamic loads resulting from these overtopping scenarios. The current study employs both wind tunnel testing and water flume testing to provide an understanding of the water loading on the superstructure of a pedestrian bridge. The bridge spanning the potentially flooded channel is at a grade of approximately 5%. Therefore, the portion of the bridge that will be submerged varies with the flood level. Likewise, sectional force coefficients typically reported in the literature need to be adapted and validated to this three-dimensional water loading scenario.