Fatigue Damage Analysis of Steel Truss Suspension Bridge Under Non-Stationary and Non-Gaussian Buffeting

The wind field environment in mountainous zones is complex. If the wind field characteristics are regarded as stationary and Gaussian, the inaccurate response results of the structure will be obtained. In this paper, a fatigue evaluation method of steel truss suspension bridge members under non-stationary and non-Gaussian buffeting is proposed. This approach can solve the fatigue evaluation problem of steel truss suspension bridge members under mountain wind. Firstly, the normal wind speed (stationary and Gaussian) is obtained by the harmonic wave synthesis method. The wind speed considering non-stationary characteristics is obtained by adopting time-varying power spectrum. Secondly, through non-linear translation, the wind speed considering non-stationary characteristics is transformed into wind speed considering both non-Gaussian and non-stationary characteristics. Finally, combined with the Palmgren–Miner rule, the effects of three different buffeting responses on fatigue damage of suspension bridge members are studied. They are traditional buffeting response, buffeting response considering non-stationary characteristics and buffeting response considering both non-stationary and non-Gaussian characteristics. The results indicate that the fatigue damage of the main cable of the suspension bridge is the biggest at the mid-span. Under the same wind speed, considering two characteristics, the component fatigue damage will further increase.