Stochastic vibration analysis of beam bridges subjected to moving loads with uncertain parameters using the probability density evolution method

Abstract

This paper proposes an effective approach for stochastic vibration analysis of beam bridges subjected to moving vehicular loads, with consideration of uncertainties in both axle load and vehicle speed. The study is conducted on the Suoi Tuong bridge using a finite element model. The loads are collected from 223 actual vehicle samples, and vehicle speed is modeled as an independent normally distributed random variables. The Probability Density Evolution Method (PDEM) is employed to simulate the time-dependent evolution of the probability density function of the dynamic response. Two approaches are used to construct the input probability space: one based on kernel density estimation (KDE) and the other on discrete empirical samples. The results show that, PDEM provides high accuracy and flexibility in handling experimental data, making it suitable for reliability assessment, exceedance analysis, and structural health monitoring of bridges under uncertainty.