Engineered model for the numerical investigation into vibration characteristics of a novel bridge bearing under free-free and fixed boundary condition

One of the most significantly deteriorated causes of bridge bearing failure is the resonance under various vibration conditions. It is important for bridge engineers to prevent the phe-nomenon, also called resonance, occurs to provide large amplitude vibrations when the bridge is being forced to vibrate at its natural frequency. This may lead to failure of the bridge structure under resonant vibrations. Common bridge bearings cannot well perform when vibrated large for example elastomeric bearings. This is because they do not have ade-quate mechanical properties to resist extremely various loads. Therefore, the concept of us-ing metastrcutures to gain superior mechanical properties inspired us to generate a novel bridge bearing model. Because of the nature of dynamic forces on bridge structure, the vi-bration characteristics of a novel bridge bearing are crucial in analysis and design process-es. This paper is the world’s first to focus on the comprehension of vibration characteristics of a novel bridge bearing under free vibration. Through finite element method using Fusion 360 software, the numerical investigation of the modal parameters under dynamic condition was carried out for the novel bridge bearing. Also, there is a comparison of the free vibration results between the free-free and fixed boundary condition, in order to observe the influence of various boundary conditions responding to fundamental frequencies and mode shapes of a bridge structure. Additionally, to verify and develop a numerical model of bridge element, the free oscillation characteristics of the novel bridge bearing in different loads and bounda-ry conditions are required. It is confirmed that vibration response measurements and param-eters of a novel bridge bearing will be useful for bridge engineers to determine the vibration-based deterioration or to remotely monitor the bridge bearing health, since it is obvious that typical bridge bearing damage appears nearly at resonant frequencies of the bearings.