Modelling and Analysis of the City Bridge of Stavanger

Abstract

At the City Bridge of Stavanger, or Bybrua, there have been recorded vibrations of stay cables that does not have a clear explanation. Due to the age of the structure and this occurrence, Statens Vegvesen and University of Stavanger are cooperating on various research topics to gain further knowledge on the behaviour of the bridge. In this thesis I create a model of the City Bridge of Stavanger using the software Abaqus FAE that I perform a frequency analysis of. From the bridge there is also acquired acceleration data at two different locations within the deck, so I perform a spectral analysis of this data too. From the analyses I can observe the how the motion of the bridge is based on the relative displacement for different eigenfrequencies. There is also found some correlation between the data sets, and the effect of the stay cables is visible on the data. The model and analysis in this thesis are simplified, so there are many opportunities for further improvements and research, and there is still more to earn about this bridge.