Dynamic behavior of footbridges strengthened by external cable systems

This paper deals with the lateral - torsional motion of bridges provided with external cables acting as dampers under the action of horizontal dynamic loads or of walking human crowd loads. A three dimensional analysis is performed for the solution of the bridge models. The theoretical formulation is based on a continuum approach, which has been widely used in the literature to analyze bridges. The resulting equations of the uncoupled motion are solved using the Laplace Transformation, while the case of the coupled motion is solved through the use of the potential energy. Finally, characteristic examples are presented and useful results are obtained.