Estimation of static force coefficients of bridge deck from acceleration responses

The feasibility of estimating the static force coefficients of a median span box-section bridge deck from the acceleration response of a structure under the wind load action is studied. The fluctuating wind field is simulated with the Auto-Regressive (AR) model including the spatial coherence of the independent Gaussian stochastic processes with uncertainties in the fluctuating components of wind velocities. The proposed method is illustrated with a three-span continuous concrete box-girder bridge deck located in open terrain. The static force coefficients are identified from a few noisy acceleration measurements with different combinations of sensors. The effects of model error in the structure and uncertainties in the fluctuating components of wind velocities are studied. The proposed method may be possibly generalized in future into an alternative to conventional wind tunnel test including all the on-site conditions in the analysis.