Structural Performance of Modern Timber Bridges in Japan

Author has experimented actual modern timber bridges used glulam timber to investigate structural rigidity and static and dynamic characteristic on structural performance over about 24 years, and then has been evaluated structural performance of modern timber bridges based on field test data accumulated and three dimensional static and eigenvalue analyses. This study is investigated structural characteristics measured by field test immediately after the complation to modern 23modern timber bridges, and then evaluated actual structural performance for those bridges based on the static and dynamic characteristics such as static deflection static rigidity, natural frequency, damping coefficient, dynamic increment factor (impact factor), vibration serviceability and so on. As the results, the actual condition of modern timber bridges became clear that static flexural rigidity was bigger than the rigidity in the design, and that fundamental vertical natural frequency was almost equivalent to general highway bridges as steel and concrete bridges.