International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics Vol. 11, No.

2 (2011) 313344 c # World Scientic Publishing Company . DOI: 10.1142/S0219455411004117

ADVANCED FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF TSING MA BRIDGE FOR STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING

Y. F. DUAN*,y,z, Y. L. XU*,x and Q. G. FEI*

*Department

of Civil and Structural Engineering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

yDepartment of Civil Engineering Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China z ceyfduan@zju.edu.cn zyf.duan@alumni.polyu.edu.hk xceylxu@polyu.edu.hk

K. Y. WONG and K. W. Y. CHAN Bridges and Structures Division Highways Department, Hong Kong Y. Q. NI and C. L. NG Department of Civil and Structural Engineering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Received 8 April 2008 Accepted 12 June 2010 The Tsing Ma Bridge is a cable suspension bridge carrying both highway and railway. A bridge health monitoring system called wind and structural health monitoring system (WASHMS) has been installed in the Tsing Ma Bridge and operated since 1997 to monitor the structural performance and its associated loads and environments. However, there exists a possibility that the worst structural conditions may not be directly monitored due to the limited number of sensors and the complexity of structure and loading conditions. Therefore, it is an essential task to establish structural performance relationships between the critical locations/components of the bridge and those instrumented by the WASHMS. Meanwhile, to develop and validate practical and eective structural damage detection techniques and safety evaluation strategies, the conventional modeling for cable-supported bridges by approximating the bridge deck as continuous beams or grids is not applicable for simulation of real damage scenarios. To full these tasks, a detailed full three-dimensional (3D) nite element model of the Tsing Ma Bridge is currently established for direct computation of the stress/strain states for all important bridge components. This paper presents the details of establishing this full 3D nite element model and its calibration. The major structural components are modeled in detail and the connections and boundary conditions are modeled properly, which results in about half million elements for the complete bridge model. The calibration of vibration modes and stresses/strains due to passing
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1. Introduction The Tsing Ma Bridge is a key component of the transportation network system in Hong Kong. It is a cable suspension bridge carrying a dual three-lane highway on the upper level of the bridge deck and two railway tracks and two carriageways on the lower level within the bridge deck. The strength and integrity of the bridge during the serviceability stage will, however, decrease due to the degradation induced by trac, wind, temperature, stress corrosion, and environmental deterioration. To protect such an immense capital investment and to assure user comfort and bridge safety during the serviceability stage, a wind and structural health monitoring system (WASHMS)1 has been installed and operated in the Tsing Ma Bridge since 1997 to monitor the integrity, durability, and reliability of the bridge. The WASHMS in the Tsing Ma Bridge is composed of 276 sensors in seven types, namely, anemometers, accelerometers, temperature sensors, strain gauges, global positioning systems, displacement transducers, and level sensing stations. However, the number of sensors is always limited for such a large structure and locations of structural defects or degradation may not be at the same positions as the sensors. A possibility exists that the worst structural condition may not be directly monitored. Therefore, the development of a structural performance relationship model for relating the structural performance conditions of the Tsing Ma Bridge to the measurement results at limited locations from the current WASHMS through numerical modeling, statistical analysis, and criticality and vulnerability analyses becomes an imperative task. Based on the calibrated structural performance relationship model, an eective bridge rating system can be developed as a rational basis for rating risk of major bridge structural components and for selecting types and frequencies of inspection and maintenance. To establish such a rating system, comprehensive researches have been being carried out by the authors. In order to develop the structural performance relationship model, a detailed full three-dimensional (3D) nite element model for performance evaluation at stress/strain level for all important bridge components is needed. Only based on such a ne model, the criticality analysis can be carried out to identify of the critical locations and components and to quantify the corresponding levels of criticalities under various loading conditions including dead load, live load, temperature load, wind load, seismic load, and even accidental load. Using such a model, various damage scenarios can be simulated for developing and validating practical and eective damage detection techniques. A bridge rating system can be nally established for structural health monitoring, safety evaluation, and decision making for inspection and maintenance of the Tsing Ma Bridge.

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Previous researches lay solid foundation for this study. During the construction stages of the Tsing Ma Bridge, ambient vibration measurements had been carried out on the free standing towers and tower-cable system before erection of deck units,2 on the tower-cable-deck system in erection stage,3 and on the bridge after the completion of deck welding connections.4 Finite element models were developed for analytical study and comparison with the measured results, in which simplied spinal beams are used to simulate the complicated bridge-deck truss system. Such models were reasonable and suitable for the investigation of global structural dynamic characteristics, but inappropriate for the present structural health monitoring, particularly for the monitoring of local components. For the purpose of health monitoring, a hybrid 3D nite element was developed by the Highways Department of Hong Kong.1 Through modal analysis using the nite element model and experimental modal identication based on health monitoring measurement data, modal frequencies and mode shapes were identied within 0$3.8 Hz frequency band. The fruitful results were used for verifying and calibrating dynamic models for the Tsing Ma Bridge, and for better understanding dynamic characteristics of the bridge. However, this hybrid 3D model was still not ne enough for criticality analysis requiring results at strain/stress level to be directly compared with the measured results. For example, the orthotropic decks (steel deck-plates supported by U-shape troughs) were modeled by plate elements with equivalent depths so that the measured results from strain gauges at the surfaces of deck plates or U-shape troughs had no counterparts in computation results. A detailed full 3D nite element model for performance evaluation at stress/strain level is still needed. The studies on long span cable supported bridge using nite element and eld measurement technologies can be classied into four categories: (1) to determine the dynamic characteristics of the bridges58; (2) to study particular advanced dynamic issues, e.g., dynamic response of suspension bridge to typhoon and trains,9,10 and bueting response of long span cable-supported bridges under skew winds1114; (3) to establish baseline model for future damage detection and safety evaluation by model updating15,16; (4) to study particular issues on structural health monitoring, for example damage detection1719 and fatigue evaluation.2022 However, none of the reported nite element models meets the requirement that stress/strain should be directly computed for most structural components in the global model. With the development of system design methodologies, sensing technologies, damage detection algorithms, and safety evaluation methods,23,24 the structural health monitoring system is gradually becoming technically available to provide information for evaluating structural integrity, durability, and reliability throughout the bridge life cycle and to help to prioritize bridge inspection and maintenance. This study aims to establish a ne 3D nite element model for structural performance evaluation at stress/strain level, based on which a bridge rating system can be developed for structural health monitoring, safety evaluation, and decision making for inspection and maintenance of the Tsing Ma Bridge.

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This paper presents the details of establishing a full 3D nite element model, and carrying out calibration of vibration modes and stresses/strains. To fulll the requirement of structural performance analyses at the level of stress and strain, all structural components, such as bridge deck, towers, main cables, suspenders, saddles, piers and anchorages, are modeled in detail. The connections and boundary conditions including main cable-saddle connections, main cable-suspender connections, rocker bearings, and sliding bearing are modeled properly. These modeling eorts assure that stresses/strains in major structural components can be directly computed and validated. As a result, about half-million elements are used in the complete bridge model.

2. Main Features of the Tsing Ma Bridge and Computer Programs The Tsing Ma Bridge, stretching from Ma Wan Island to Tsing Yi Island (Fig. 1), has a main span of 1377 m between Ma Wan tower in the West and Tsing Yi tower in the east, Ma Wan approach span of 455 m from Ma Wan anchorage to Ma Wan Tower, and Tsing Yi approach span of 300 m from Tsing Yi tower to Tsing Yi anchorage. Two parallel main cables 36 m apart in the north and south are accommodated by two pairs of saddles at the top of Tsing Yi tower and Ma Wan tower, with their lower ends xed at Ma Wan anchorage and Tsing Yi anchorage. Both anchorages are gravity structures resting on the underlying rock.25 On the Ma Wan side, the main cables are also held on the saddles on Pier M2, at a horizontal distance of 355.5 m from Ma Wan Tower. The bridge deck in Ma Wan approach span are supported by 19 pairs of suspender units hung from the main cables, Pier M2 and another Pier (M1) at a horizontal distance of 76.5 m away from Pier M2. In the main span, 76 pairs of suspender units from the main cables support the bridge deck to make a minimum clearance of 62 m. On the Tsing Yi side, the deck is supported by three piers (T3, T2, and T1, with intervals of 72 m) rather than by suspender units. This arrangement introduces asymmetry with respect to the mid span of the bridge. Modeling and simulation work is executed by MSC/PATRAN as model builder and MSC/NASTRAN as nite element solver. Among many advantages of MSC/ PATRAN as model builder, the unique one is its function of integrating multiple

23m

76.5m

355.5m

1377m

300m 72m 72m 72m 72m

Ma Wan Tower
206.4m

Tsing Yi Tower
206.4m

78.58m

M1 M2
Anchorage

T3 T2 T1 Anchorage
Tsing Yi Island

Ma Wan Island

Fig. 1. Conguration of Tsing Ma Bridge.

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model components into the whole model so that the modeling task can be fullled by several programmers individually and simultaneously to promote the project progress. The most important reason for choosing MSC/NASTRAN as the nite element solver is its function of parallel processing and multi-central processor unit (CPU) since millions of degree-of-freedom (DOF) will be involved in the global bridge model which may be out of the handling ability of other programs. Thanks to the function of parallel processing and multi-CPU of MSC/NSATRAN, and resorting to the hardware of the 64-bit Itanium Server with 8 CPUs (each of 1.5 GHz, under the HP-UX operating system) provided by the Highways Department of Hong Kong, this project is becoming feasible and practical.

3. Finite Element Modeling The work on establishment of a full 3D nite element model of the Tsing Ma Bridge are divided into four major parts: (1) modeling of bridge deck; (2) modeling of towers and piers; (3) modeling of cable system and xture components; and (4) modeling of the global bridge structure.

3.1. Modeling of bridge deck Since the Tsing Ma Bridge carries both highway and railway, both structural and geometric congurations of the bridge decks are very complicated and dierent at dierent locations. Nevertheless, the bridge decks can be eectively modeled and assembled by a number of modules: (1) deck module of main span, (2) deck module at Ma Wan tower (3) deck module of Ma Wan approach span, (4) deck module at Tsing Yi tower, and (5) deck module of Tsing Yi approach span. 3.1.1. Bridge deck module of main span The bridge deck at the main span is a suspended deck and the structural conguration is typical for every 18-m segment. Therefore, the modeling of full span of the bridge deck in the main span can be achieved by assembling a typical suspended deck module of 18-m long. As shown in Fig. 2, a typical 18-m suspended deck module consists of longitudinal trusses, cross frames, highway decks, railway tracks, and bracings. Two longitudinal trusses link up the cross frames along the bridge longitudinal axis, acting as the main girder of the bridge. Each longitudinal truss is comprised of upper and lower chords and vertical and diagonal members. For the 18-m module, there are ve cross frames, one main cross frame (in the middle) and four intermediate cross frames, 4.5 m apart from each other. Each cross frame is comprised of upper and lower chords, inner struts, outer struts (also the vertical members of longitudinal trusses), and upper and lower inclined edge members. Through suspender units connected to the intersections of edge members of the main cross frame, this deck module is suspended to the main cable. Two pairs of sway

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Railway tracks Orthotropic deck (top) Cross frames (main & intermediate) Cross bracings (top center) Corrugated sheets

Longitudinal trusses Cross bracings (bottom outer)

Cross bracings (bottom centre)

Orthotropic deck (bottom)

(a)
Longitudinal truss Intermediate cross frame

Track plate

Bottom chord

Top view (Cross frame) Rail waybeams Tee diaphragm Sway bracings Main cross frame Bottom view

(b)

(d)

Deck plate

Deck trough

(c)

(e)

Fig. 2. A typical 18-m suspended deck module: (a) 3D view; (b) Frames and trusses; (c) Orthotropic deck; (d) Railway tracks and (e) Connections among dierent components.

bracings are connected from the suspension points at the main cross frame to the outer ends of the upper chords of the two adjacent intermediate cross frames to strengthen the structural stability. Two symmetric bays of top orthotropic highway decks are supported by the upper chords of cross frames and longitudinal trusses. Between them are a row of top center cross bracings stretching from neighboring

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cross frames. Another two symmetric bays of highway decks are supported by the lower chords of cross frames, laterally between the inner and outer struts. Two symmetric railway tracks are also supported by the lower chords of cross frames, but laterally between the inner struts. One row of bottom center cross bracings are between the two railway tracks, and two rows of bottom outer cross bracings are between the bottom highway bridge decks and railway tracks. Corrugated sheets covering the edge members of the cross frames are used to protect against wind, rain, and other environmental factors. This deck module is symmetric to the middle vertical plane along the longitudinal bridge axis, with a width of 2 20:5 m, a lateral distance between the two suspension points at the main cross frame of 2 18 m, a height of 8.0 m and an inner clearance in the middle of 5.35 m. The highway decks and railway tracks are modeled in detail in order to obtain the stress/strain states of structures to be compared with the measured results from the strain gauges attached on the plates, troughs, and rail waybeams. The orthotropic decks are made of steel deck plates stiened by deck troughs. The deck plates are modeled as 20-DOF shell elements (QUAD4), and the troughs 12-DOF beam elements (BAR2). Since the troughs are very closely spaced (at the intervals of about 0.6 m), the deck plates using shared nodes with the troughs and the cross frame chords connected to the troughs need to be meshed very nely in accordance with the location of troughs. Along the longitudinal bridge axis, the 18-m deck plates are meshed as 16 divisions. As a result, 800 beam elements and 800 shell elements are generated for the top highway decks, and 384 beam elements and 384 shell elements for the bottom highway decks. The railway tracks are composed of track plates, rail waybeams, and tee diaphragms. The track plates modeled as 20-DOF shell elements (QUAD4) are supported by two pairs of rail waybeams modeled as 12-DOF beam elements (BAR2) using shared nodes with the shell elements. The tee diaphragms are also modeled as 12-DOF beam elements (BAR2) using shared nodes with shell elements of track plates and beam elements of rail waybeams. All the frame and longitudinal trusses are modeled as 12-DOF beam elements (BAR2) that are appropriately meshed for connections with highway decks and railway tracks. Since the highway decks and railway tracks are vertically at dierent levels with the cross frames and longitudinal trusses, multi-point constraints (MPCs) are used to connect them to simulate the masterslave relationship. There are totally 1922 nodes, 3028 elements, and 478 MPCs in this nite element model of a typical 18-m suspended deck module. \Steel_Deck" (Table 1) is the material used for all the elements of this deck module except that the edge members of main cross frame are modeled using \Steel_Rigid" (Table 1) whose elastic modulus is 10 times that of steel due to the heavily stiened conditions at the suspension points. The density of \Steel_Deck" and \Steel_Rigid" is 9000 kg=m 3 , larger than that of real steel (7850 kg=m 3 ), accounting for the eect of pavements above the deck plates and many accessory components; and its elastic modulus is 2:1 10 11 N=m 2 , the same as real steel.

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Y. F. Duan et al. Table 1. Properties of materials used in global bridge model. Material classications Concrete Reinforced_Concrete Structural_Steel Steel_Cable (23  ) Steel_Deck Steel_Rigid Steel_Saddle Elastic modulus (N=m 2 ) 2:6 3:4 10 10 2:1 10 11 1:96 10 11 2:1 10 11 2:1 10 12 2:1 10 11 10 10 Density (kg=m 3 ) 2500 2500 7850 7850 9000 9000 9000 Poisson ratio 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3

3.1.2. Other bridge deck modules The bridge deck module at Ma Wan tower is individually established because its structural conguration is quite dierent from the typical suspended deck module in the main span as described above. This deck module is in a length of 108 m and it is symmetrical about a bearing cross frame which contacts with Ma Wan tower in bearing connections. The completed FEM of the deck module at Ma Wan tower is shown in Fig. 3. This deck module is mainly constructed using longitudinal trusses, main and intermediate cross frames, orthotropic decks, bracings, railway tracks, and corrugated fairing sheets. There are totally 25 cross frames in the deck module at Ma Wan tower, and each cross frame is 4.5 m apart from its neighboring ones. One major structural dierence of this deck module from the suspended deck module in the main span is the additional provision of two inner longitudinal trusses which are in a span of 108 m. The top orthotropic deck is in full width and spans 81 m long without separation at the central part. Despite the dierences in the outer longitudinal trusses and the top orthotropic deck, their modeling is in a similar way to the modeling of the suspended deck modules in the main span.

Outer longitudinal trusses Inner longitudinal trusses

Bracings (upper) Bracings (bottom)

Bearing cross frame

Fig. 3. Finite element model of deck module at Ma Wan tower.

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Suspended segment

Pier M2

Ma Wan anchorage

Pier M1

Fig. 4. Finite element model of Ma Wan approach span.

The bridge deck of Ma Wan approach span in a length of 197 m is modeled as one deck module and the completed FEM is shown in Fig. 4. This deck module is supported at three locations: (1) Ma Wan anchorage; (2) Pier M1; and (3) Pier M2. This deck module is mainly constructed from longitudinal trusses, cross frames, orthotropic decks, bracings, railway tracks, and corrugated fairing sheets. The notable dierence of deck module in the Ma Wan approach span is its edging shape. Therefore, the edge members of typical cross frames and the bearing cross frames at M2, M1, and anchorage are dierent from the counterparts of cross frames in the suspended deck modules. The bridge deck module at Tsing Yi tower is established for connections to the suspended deck module in the main span and the deck module in Tsing Yi approach span. This deck module is in a length of 58.5 m and contacts with Tsing Yi tower in bearing connections. The completed FEM of the deck module at Tsing Yi tower is shown in Fig. 5. This deck module is structurally composed of outer and inner longitudinal trusses, main and intermediate cross frames, orthotropic decks, and top and bottom deck bracings, railway tracks, and corrugated fairing sheets.

Bearing cross frame

Fig. 5. Finite element model of deck module at Tsing Yi tower.

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Tsing Yi tower Pier T2

Pier T3
(a)

Pier T2

Tsing Yi anchorage

Pier T1

(b) Fig. 6. Finite element model of Tsing Yi approach span: (a) Tower/T3/T2 and (b) T2/T1/anchorage.

The bridge deck in Tsing Yi approach span is in a total length of 288 m. The whole span is supported by Tsing Yi tower, Piers T3, T2, T1, and Tsing Yi anchorage in equal spans. The modeling of this part of deck is separated into two deck modules Module Tower/T3/T2 and Module T2/T1/Anchorage as shown in Fig. 6. For both modules, there are one pair of outer longitudinal trusses and one pair of inner longitudinal trusses acting as the main girders. Because the deck between Piers T2 and T1 is wider than the other three spans of the Tsing Yi approach span, there is an additional pair of inclined trusses placed on the two outermost sides of this deck segment. 3.2. Modeling of bridge towers and Piers 3.2.1. Bridge towers Each of Ma Wan and Tsing Yi towers (Fig. 7) is composed of two reinforced concrete legs built on massive reinforced concrete foundations and four deep pre-stressed portal beams embedded with steel trusses. Each portal beam includes a steel truss cast in the concrete enclosing a narrow corridor for access between legs. One special

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Fig. 7. Finite element model of bridge towers.

feature of the portal beams is that they are composite structures of reinforced concrete and embedded steelwork truss consisting of horizontal, diagonal, and vertical members. The geometric and structural congurations are almost the same for the two towers except that the topmost portal beam in Ma Man tower is 150 mm higher than the counterparts in Tsing Yi tower. The reinforced concrete in tower legs, foundations, and portal beams is modeled as 24-DOF solid elements (Hex8), and steel trusses in portal beams are modeled as 12-DOF beam elements (BAR2). Additionally, rigid elements are used for connection between the ends of horizontal steel truss members and the surface of tower legs. The material properties of \Reinforced_Concrete" and \Structural_Steel" as listed in Table 1 are used for the reinforced concrete and steel trusses, respectively. Previous researches1,4 indicated modal interactions between the deck, cable, and towers; therefore, it is essential to calibrate the model of free standing towers using the measurement data during construction stage.2 Modal analysis for the present tower models has been carried out before assembling them into the entire bridge model and a good agreement between the computed and measured dynamic characteristics was achieved.26 3.2.2. Bridge Piers The two side spans on the Ma Wan side and Tsing Yi side are supported by two and three Piers (Fig. 1), respectively. As shown in Fig. 8, Piers M1, T2, and T3 are freestanding piers of similar design but with dierent heights, which only provide vertical supports to the deck. Pier M2 provides lateral restraint to the bridge deck and carries two saddles at its top above the deck. These two saddles deect the main cables through a small angle. Pier T1 is part of the approach road and slip road

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Tie beam

Tie beam (Upper)

Pier leg
Pier leg

Tie beam (Lower) Footing

Footing

(a)

(b)

Wall panel

Footing

(c) Fig. 8. Finite element models of bridge piers: (a) Piers M1/T2/T3; (b) Pier M2 and (c) Pier T1.

structure on the Tsing Yi side. It provides both vertical support and lateral restraint to the bridge deck. All supporting piers in the side spans are reinforced concrete structures and built on reinforced concrete pad footing supported on competent rock. The ve bridge piers are modeled by solid elements (Hex8 elements and Wedge6 elements) and shell elements (Quad4 elements and Tri3 elements). As noted that the ve piers are not as heavily reinforced as the bridge towers, the property values of \Concrete" listed in Table 1 are adopted. The value of elastic modulus 2:6 10 10 N=m 2 is lower than that of \Reinforced_Concrete," 3:4 10 10 N=m 2 , used for the modeling of the tower, while the density and Poisson ratio are the same with those for \Reinforced_Contrete."

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3.3. Modeling of cable system and cable xture components 3.3.1. Cable system The cable system (Fig. 9) consisting of two main cables, 95 pairs of suspender units, and 95 pairs of cable bands is the main supporting structure in the cable suspension of the Tsing Ma Bridge. The two main cables are 36 m apart, each with 91 strands of parallel galvanized steel wires in the main span and 97 strands in the approach spans. The resultant cables have an overall diameter of 1.1 m after compacting, a cross-sectional area of 0:759 m 2 in the main span and 0:801 m 2 in approach spans. The main cables are wrapped by the cable bands at the connection locations to facilitate installing suspender units onto the main cables. Each suspender unit consists of two pairs of wire ropes of 76 mm diameter passing over the clamps on the cable bands and then attached to main cross frames of the bridge decks. The distance between neighboring suspender units is 18 m along the longitudinal bridge axis. The main cables are modeled as cable elements: 14-DOF two-node beam element (BAR2) considering dierential stiness due to internal tensions. The proles of the main cables are taken as the geometry under dead load at design temperature (23  ) from the design drawings. The horizontal tensions are 405838 kN for the main span, Tsing Yi approach span, and Ma Wan approach span from Ma Wan Tower to Pier M2, and 400013 kN for the other part of Ma Wan approach span from Pier M2 to Ma Wan anchorage. The four wire ropes within each suspender unit are modeled by a single 14-DOF two-node beam element (BAR2) considering the eect of internal tensions, with an equivalent radius of 76 mm. Two 4-DOF pipe elements (TUBE) simulate each cable band. The connections among main cables, cable bands, and suspender units are achieved using shared nodes in the nite element model. The total number of elements used in the Ma Wan approach span and the main span are 58 and 229, respectively. For the main cable in the Tsing Yi approach span, there are only nine elements used. Five more elements are used to x the main cable on the tower saddle at the top of Ma Wan tower and Tsing Yi tower, respectively. The material for the cable system is \Steel_Cable" (Table 1), of which the properties follow design values.

Fig. 9. Finite element model of cable system.

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3.3.2. Cable xture components The major cable xture components of the Tsing Ma Bridge include two pairs of tower saddles, one pair of pier saddles at Pier M2, the Ma Wan anchorage, and the Tsing Yi anchorage. The FEM modeling of the tower saddles is the same for either tower. As shown in Fig. 10, the tower saddle is composed of three parts: the upper part is a U-shaped and curved steel channel where the main cable is tightly clamped along the curved trough; the lower part is underneath the steel channel as a supporting structure consisting of a series of steel plates; and the bottom part is a bearing plate mounted on the top of tower leg. The upper part of tower saddle is modeled by 24-DOF solid elements (Hex8 elements). The upper part is relatively ne meshed to better model the curvature and a total of 250 elements are used. Since the lower part of tower saddle and the bearing plate are constructed from pieces of steel plates, 20-DOF shell elements (Quad4 elements) are used. The bearing plate is so meshed as to match the element grid of the tower at its top surface. The upper and bearing part use the material of \Steel_Saddle" in Table 1, while the lower part use \Steel _Rigid" in Table 1. Dierent from the tower saddles, on Pier M2 are rotatable pier saddles. The cables are xed on the pier saddles, but the pier saddles are rotatable relative to the pier, which allows the adaptation of the main cable congurations. Solid element (HEX8, and Wedge6) and shell element (QUAD4) are employed to model it. The material \Structural_Steel" in Table 1 is used in the modeling. The Ma Wan anchorage and Tsing Yi anchorage x the lower ends of main cables at Ma Wan and Tsing Ying approach spans, respectively. They are modeled using solid (HEX8, Wedge6) and shell elements (QUAD4). The material \Concrete" in Table 1 is used for all the anchorages and piers. 3.4. Modeling of global bridge structure After the local components are ready as illustrated in the previous sections, they can be assembled together to obtain the global model. The assembly procedures are: (1) to assemble all the deck modules to form the whole deck in accordance with the

Fig. 10. Finite element model of tower saddles.

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designed deck prole; (2) to integrate the towers and piers into the model; (3) to include the cable system and cable xture components (saddles and anchorages); and (4) to properly model all connections among dierent components and (5) for proper modeling boundary conditions for the global structure. 3.4.1. Integration of bridge deck For the convenience in integrating the bridge deck components to form a complete bridge deck model, a global coordinate system for the whole bridge and a prole for the bridge deck have been set up before building up these deck modules. In the global coordinate system (xyz), the x-axis is along the longitudinal bridge axis (from West to East), originating from the location of the Ma Wan abutment bearings (Chainage 23 128.00) and ending at the location of the Tsing Ying abutment bearings (Chainage 25 288.00) with a total length of 2160 m; the y-axis is along the lateral direction (perpendicular to the bridge axis) with a positive direction from the Hong Kong side (South) to the New Territories side (North); the z-axis is along the vertical direction initiating from Principal Datum Hong Kong. Since the bridge deck is structurally formed by 481 cross frames interconnected by the longitudinal trusses, the prole of the deck can be geometrically illustrated by the locations of these cross frames in terms of the upper freeway level. By using this route prole datum line and the global coordinate system, the above-mentioned deck modules are built in their corresponding locations which are ready for the nal integration. In consideration of the similar structural congurations, the suspended deck units at the Ma Wan approach span and at the main span can be modeled using a basic 18-m deck module with some small modication. Because the deck is cambered along the span, the 18-m section is located using the suspension points, and then rotated by the right angle, and nally connected to the next 18-m section by merging the connection nodes. All the nonsuspended deck units are directly modeled as parts of their corresponding deck modules. After the ve deck modules have been completed, the entire bridge deck can be formed by integrating them together by merging the connection nodes between neighboring deck modules with reference to the route prole datum line and the common global coordinate system. 3.4.2. Modeling of connections The formation of a completed global bridge model also includes the connections between dierent bridge components and the boundary conditions (or supports). Deck and tower connections At Ma Wan tower, the bridge deck is connected to the bottom cross beam of the tower through four articulated link bearings (or rockers) and to the tower legs through four lateral bearings (rollers). The articulated link bearings restrict the movement in the vertical direction (z). The lateral bearings are to restrain the lateral movement (y) of the deck. Therefore, the deck is allowed to move along the

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longitudinal direction of the bridge (x). At the Tsing Yi tower, there are also four bottom bearings connecting the deck to the lowest cross beam of the tower and four lateral bearings connecting the deck to the tower legs. The only dierence of the bearings at the Tsing Yi tower from those at the Ma Wan tower is that the four bottom bearings at the Tsing Yi Tower are rollers rather than rockers as used at the Ma Wan tower. In modeling these connections, each of the bottom bearings (rollers) at the Tsing Yi towers is modeled as an MPC connecting the tower cross beam and the deck cross frame with the constraints that the z-direction (vertical) displacement of its upper point attached to the deck cross frame is dependent on and equal to that of its lower point attached to the tower beam. However, for the bottom bearings at the Ma Wan tower, each of them is modeled as a rigid rod element pinned to the deck cross frame and the tower cross beam for simulating the rocker bearings. The elasticity modulus of the rigid rod is taken as 2:1 10 12 N=m 2 . For each of the lateral bearings at both the Ma Wan and Tsing Yi towers, it is also modeled as an MPC connecting the tower legs and the deck cross beam with the constraints that the y-direction (lateral) displacement of its point on the deck cross frame is dependent on and equal to that of its counterpart on the bridge legs. Deck and pier connections As shown in Fig. 1, there are two Piers (M1 and M2) in the Ma Wan approach span, and three Piers (T3, T2, and T1) in the Tsing Yi approach span. Piers M1, T2, and T3 are free-standing piers of similar design, which provide only bottom bearings (rollers) as their connections with the decks. Pier M2 provides both bottom bearings (rollers) and lateral bearings (rollers) to the bridge deck. Pier T1 is part of the approach road and slip road structure on the Tsing Yi side. It also provides both bottom and lateral bearings (rollers) to the bridge deck. For each of Piers M1, T2, and T3, there are four bottom bearings (rollers) which are modeled as MPCs with the constraint that the z-direction (vertical) displacement of its upper point on the bridge deck cross frame is dependent on and equal to that of it lower point on the piers. For Pier M2, there are four bottom bearings (rollers) and four lateral bearings (rollers). For Pier T1, there exist six bottom bearings (rollers) and four lateral bearings (rollers). Each of these bottom bearings is modeled as an MPC with the constraint that the z-direction (vertical) displacement of its upper point on the bridge deck cross frame is dependent on and equal to that of it lower point on the pier. Each of the lateral bearings is modeled as an MPC with the constraint that the y-direction (lateral) displacement of its point on the bridge deck cross frame is dependent on and equal to that of its counterpart on the pier. Cable and tower saddle connections The tower saddles are one of the major bridge components used to x the main cables on the top of bridge towers and as guiders to change curvature of the main cables between the main span and the approach spans. Since the cables are tightly xed to

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the tower saddles, in modeling the connections between the saddle and the main cable, six pairs of rigid plates connected to the nodes of the U-shaped steel channel in the saddle model are used to clamp the main cable by sharing nodes between the main cable and rigid plates. The Young's Modulus of the rigid plates is 2:1 10 12 N=m 2 . Deck/suspender and suspender/main cable connections For the suspended deck units in the main span and in part of the Ma Wan approach span, the deck is supported by the suspenders hung from the main cables. The suspenders are connected to the main cross frames at the suspension points. In modeling the connections between the deck and suspenders, the method of sharing nodes is adopted. For each connection, the suspender is connected to the intersection of the two inclined edge members of the main cross fame. The connections between the main cables and suspenders are also achieved by sharing nodes. 3.4.3. Modeling of boundary conditions Four sets of boundary conditions (or supports) are modeled: (1) Fixed supports at the bottom of the foundations for all the Piers (M1, M2, T3, T2, and T1) and towers (Ma Wan tower and Ting Yi tower) Since the piers and towers including their foundations are modeled in details using solid elements according to their geometric and structural congurations, the xed supports provided from the ground to these structural components are applied to all the nodes at the bottom of their foundations. (2) Fixed supports at the ends of main cables Within the anchorages, the main cables are split to bundles of strands with each bundle xed to the anchor block at dierent inclinations. Realizing that the overall eects of the anchorage on the main cables are to x them at the locations where the cables are entering into the anchorage, the models of anchorages are not included into the global model and the cables are xed at the cable ends which are originally the connection points between the cables and the anchorages. (3) Hinge supports at the deck end on the Ma Wan side The hinge supports with constraints on the translational directions along the x-, y-, and z-directions but without constraints on the rotations are adopted to replicate the eects of Ma Wan anchorages on the bridge deck. This support condition is applied to all the nodes of the lower cross beam of the bearing cross frame at the deck end on the Ma Wan side by adding boundary conditions of constraints on the x-, y-, and z-displacements. (4) Sliding supports at the deck end on the Tsing Yi side The bottom and lateral bearings at the Tsing Yi anchorage provide sliding supports at the deck end on the Tsing Yi side. Since the Tsing Yi anchorage is not included in

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the global bridge model, these supports are modeled as rollers which allow the movement of deck along the longitudinal direction. The vertical roller supports for modeling bottom bearings are achieved by applying the boundary conditions of constraints on the y- and z-displacements to the nodes of the bottom cross beam of the bearing cross frame. The horizontal roller supports for modeling lateral bearings are achieved by applying the boundary conditions with constraint on the y-displacement to the edge nodes of the bearing cross frame at the levels of the upper and lower cross beams. 3.4.4. Main features of global bridge model By integrating the local bridge components with the proper modeling of the connections and boundary conditions, the entire global bridge model is established as shown in Fig. 11. As a result, more than 300 thousand nodes, 450 thousand elements including about 50 thousand MPCs, and 1.2 million DOFs are used to establish the global bridge model. The main features of this model can be summarized as: (1) the structural and geometric congurations of the original structures are well replicated; (2) the damage of each of the structural members can be directly and precisely simulated; and (3) the stress/strain state of structural components can be computed directly for comparison with eld measurements.

4. Calibration of Vibration Modes Usually model updating is necessary for a newly established nite element model. Since the present 3D nite element model is very ne and the geometric, material, and structural properties are well simulated, it is found that few eorts are necessary for the model updating. The present results are obtained from the established model as described in previous sections.

Ma Wan Approach Span Main Span

Tsing YiApproach Span

Fig. 11. Full 3D nite element model of Tsing Ma Bridge.

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4.1. Modal analysis Considering the eects of osets and initial stresses, the modal analysis is carried out by the modal analysis module (SOL103) in MSC/NASTRAN. It is found that the modal frequencies are closely spaced with the rst 100 modes between 0.071 Hz and 1.309 Hz as shown in Fig. 12. Dynamic interactions among vertical, lateral, torsional, and longitudinal motions, among deck, cables, and towers, and among main span and approach spans can be found. Eight classications of mode shapes can be identied in the rst 18 modes (Table 2): (1) Predominant in-phase lateral motion of deck and cables in main span: L1 (mode 1), L2 (mode 4), and L3 (mode 13). The wave number is half, one, and one and a half for L1, L2, and L3, respectively. The 3D isometric view of the mode shapes is shown in Fig. 13. (2) Predominant in-phase vertical motion of deck and cables in main span: V1 (mode 2), V2 (mode 3), V3 (mode 5), V4 (mode 9), and V5 (mode 17). As shown in Fig. 14, the rst vertical mode (V1) is anti symmetric, with a wave number of one, while the second vertical mode (V2) is symmetric, with the wave number of a half. The wave numbers for the third to fth modes are increasing from one and a half to two and a half. (3) Predominant torsion of deck and cables in main span: T1 (mode 12) and T2 (mode 15). As shown in Fig. 15, the wave number is a half for T1, and one for T2. (4) Predominant out-of-phase lateral motion of two main cables in main span: Cable_L1_out (mode 6), Cable_L2_out (mode 7), and Cable_L3_out (mode 18). The lateral motion is in out-of-phase for the two main cables, and wave number is a half, one, and one and a half for the these three modes, respectively.
1.4 1.2 Frequency (Hz) 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 20 40 60 Mode order 80 100

Fig. 12. Distribution of modal frequency.

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Table 2. Frequency and mode shape. Frequency Meas. Freq. (Hz) (4) 0.069 0.113 0.139 0.164 0.184 0.214 0.226 0.236 0.241 0.240 0.284 0.267 0.297 0.336 0.320 0.347 0.327 0.352 (5) 2.9 5.5 5.2 3.4 4.5 2.2 0.3 2.3 3.5 4.2 3.7 10.9 5.0 3.3 3.6 3.2 4.8 0.2 (6) 4328.9 4910.1 3902.4 4214.8 4011.9 2968.2 2637.6 2828.9 3021.5 4407.5 2684.1 3870.0 4114.5 1642.0 3869.4 1612.9 4967.7 2479.8 (7) 0.055 0.037 0.075 0.111 0.082 0.140 0.103 0.146 0.123 0.086 0.055 0.056 0.166 0.039 0.064 0.067 0.210 0.140 (8) 0.092 0.0551 0.148 0.190 0.164 0.202 0.162 0.317 0.264 0.148 0.170 0.089 0.297 0.166 0.116 0.104 0.400 0.350 Relative dierence (%) Calibration factor (k) Root mean square (r) Normalized dierence (e) Mode shape Modal assurance criterion (MAC) (9) 0.996 0.998 0.989 0.982 0.987 0.979 0.987 0.949 0.965 0.989 0.986 0.997 0.955 0.922 0.995 0.995 0.944 0.980

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Modal no.

Classication

FEM Freq. (Hz)

(1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

(2) L1 V1 V2 L2 V3 Cable_L1_out Cable_L2_out Cable_L1_in V4 Cable_L2_in MW_V1 T1 L3 MW_Cable_L1_in T2 MW_Cable_L1_out V5 Cable_L3_out

(3) 0.071 0.119 0.146 0.170 0.192 0.219 0.227 0.242 0.249 0.250 0.294 0.296 0.312 0.325 0.332 0.336 0.343 0.353

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(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 13. The rst three modes of in-phase lateral motion of deck and cables in main span: (a) L1-mode 1; (b) L2-mode 4 and (c) L3-mode 13.

(5) Predominant in-phase lateral motion of main cables in main span: Cable_L1_in (mode 8) and Cable_L2_in (mode 10). The lateral motion is in the same phase for the two main cables, while the lateral motion of deck in smaller amplitude is out of phase with the motion of main cables. (6) Predominant in-phase vertical motion of deck and cables in Ma Wan approach span: MW_V1 (mode 11). The motion in Ma Wan approach span is predominant,

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Fig. 14. The rst ve modes of in-phase vertical motion of deck and cables in main span: (a) V1-mode 2; (b) V2-mode 3; (c) V3-mode 5; (d) V4-mode 9 and (e) V5-mode 17.

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 15. The rst two modes of torsion of deck and cables in main span: (a) T1-mode 12 and (b) T2-mode 15.

interacted with the smaller amplitude vibration at main span. The vertical motion is in-phase for the deck and cables in a half wave. (7) Predominant in-phase lateral motion of cables at Ma Wan approach span: MW_Cable_L1_in (mode 14). The lateral motion is in the same phase for the two main cables in a half wave. (8) Predominant out-of-phase lateral motion of cables at Ma Wan approach span: MW_Cable_L1_out (mode 16). The lateral motion is out of phase for the two main cables in a half wave. Therefore, the 18 vibration modes can be classied into three categories: (1) modes dominated by in-phase vibrations of deck and cables in main span, including three lateral (L1$L3), 5 vertical (V1$V5), and two torsional vibration modes (T1 and T2); (2) modes dominated by vibrations of main cables in main span, consisting of two out-of-phase (Cable_L1_out, and Cable_L2_out) and two in-phase (Cable_L1_in, and Cable_L2_in) vibration modes; (3) modes dominated by vibrations in Ma Wan approach span, comprised of one in-phase vertical motion of deck and cables (MW_V1), one in-phase lateral motion of main cables (MW_Cable_L1_in), and one out-of-phase lateral motion of main cables (MW_Cable_L1_out). 4.2. Field measurement The ambient vibration measurement of the Tsing Ma Bridge after the completion of bridge deck, was carried out in 1997, by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) under the auspices of the Hong Kong Highways Department.27 In that measurement, for obtaining the global dynamic characteristics including frequencies and mode shapes, the sensors were so located that the longitudinal, lateral, torsional, and vertical motions of the bridge deck, the main cables, and the towers were measured. The measurement cross sections at 18-m intervals are numbered as 1 to 108 from Ma Wan side to Tsing Yi side, among which 30 cross sections are chosen for measurement. The cross sections No. 1$95 are corresponding to the 95 pairs of

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suspenders. Because of the limited number of sensors, the measurement is carried out cross section by cross section. Two reference cross sections No. 35 and 71 were selected at approximately the quarter point and three-quarter point along the main span, respectively. For the reference cross sections, accelerometers were placed at the main cable and bridge deck, only on the Hong Kong Island side (South) of the bridge. For other measurement cross sections, accelerometers were deployed at the deck and main cables, on both the Hong Kong Island side (South) and the New Territories Side (North). Measurement at each cross section involved synchronous acquisition of signals at the main cables and bridge deck plus signals at one of the reference cross sections. Signals from vibration in the vertical, lateral, and longitudinal directions were acquired one at a time by reorientating the sensors. This arrangement allows crossreference of all recorded signals through the measurements with sensors in the reference cross sections. The measurements at the reference cross section No. 35 were taken as reference for all measurements on the Ma Wan side span and the half main span close to the Ma Wan tower while the measurements at the reference cross section No. 71 were taken as reference for those on the Tsing Yi side span and the half main span close to the Tsing Yi tower. A separate measurement was made with sensors in both reference cross sections serving as crossreference for all measurements. Each of the towers was also measured with crossreferences to measurements at one of the reference cross sections. Each of the sensors at the bridge deck is mounted onto the structural steelwork inside the deck unit with a magnetic stand, close to the suspender of the corresponding measurement cross section, and vertically at about the centroidal axis of the deck unit. When monitoring the main cables, the accelerometer was mounted on a magnetic stand xed to the cable band at the measurement cross sections. The signal cables were laid along the catwalks beneath the main cables and connected to the acquisition station. When monitoring the towers, the accelerometer was located at the top of each tower leg. The signal wires from the sensors were tied to an adjacent anchor, running along the catwalk, hanging down along one of the suspenders and then connected to the acquisition station at the lower deck level. Through experimental modal analyses, the rst 18 modes of modal frequencies and mode shapes were identied; and the results are shown and compared with the computed results in the next section. 4.3. Correlations of computed and measured results 4.3.1. Modal frequency The computed modal frequencies from the FEM model as presented in Table 2 are compared with the measured results. The relative dierence in modal frequency is dened as d f FEM f Measure 100%; f Measure 1

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where f FEM and f Measure are the computed FEM modal frequency and measured modal frequency, respectively. Table 2 compares the rst 18 modal frequencies computed from the present model with the measured results. A good agreement between them is found. The relative dierences are no more than 5.5% for most of them except that a relative dierence of 10.9% is found for the rst torsion mode (T1). 4.3.2. Mode shape The measured mode shapes were normalized by normalizing the largest deformation at measurement locations to \1." A calibration factor should be therefore obtained for the computed results in comparing them with the measured results because that the computed mode shapes are normalized by the generalized mass. The least square method is used to determine these calibration factors by minimizing Y
n X i1

Measure k FEM 2 i i

Q where is the minimization objective; k is the calibration factor; n is the number of measurement locations for obtaining the measured mode shape; and Measure and i FEM are a set of n terms of the measured mode shape and a set of n terms of the i corresponding computed FEM mode shape. The calibration factor is then given by Pn Measure FEM i i1 k Pn i FEM FEM : 3 i i i1 To evaluate the dierences between the measured results with the calibrated results by the present FEM, the root mean square r and the normalized dierence e are adopted: s Pn Measure k FEM 2 i1  i i r 4 n s Pn Measure k FEM 2 i1 i i Pn : 5 e Measure 2 i i1 In order to provide a measure of consistency between the measured and calculated mode shape, modal assurance criterion (MAC) is also calculated: s P Pn Measure FEM n Measure FEM i1 i i P i MAC Pi1 i : 6 n Measure Measure n FEM FEM i1 i1 i i i i MAC takes values from zero, representing no consistent correspondence, to one, representing a consistent correspondence. In this manner, if the two sets of data truly

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exhibited a consistent relationship, a unity of MAC is approached and hence the results from the present FEM are considered as reasonable ones. The comparison between the computed mode shapes from FEM and the measured mode shapes from eld measurements for the rst 18 modes are carried out and a good agreement between them is observed for each mode. Due to the limited space here, only the second lateral mode (L2, mode 4), second vertical (V2, mode 3), and second torsional mode (T2, mode 15) are respectively shown in Figs. 1618. The horizontal coordinate in these gures is the number of measurement cross sections according to the numbering method in ambient vibration measurement, while the vertical coordinate shows the vibration amplitude of the mode shapes. The calibrated
1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North 0 20 40 60 80 100

(a)
1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North 0 20 40 60 80 100

(b) Fig. 16. Second lateral mode (L2, mode 4): (a) Cable component and (b) Deck component.

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1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North 0 20 40 60 80 100

(a)
1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North 0 20 40 60 80 100

(b) Fig. 17. Second vertical (V2, mode 3): (a) Cable component and (b) Deck component.

computation results agree well with the measurement results, no matter for the north and south sides and for the cable and deck components. Table 2 summarizes all of the calibration factors (k), the root mean square (r), the normalized dierence (e), and the MAC which are involved in the computation and analysis of the mode shapes. It can be seen that the values of modal assurance criterion are greater than 0.92 and the averaged value reaches 0.98, showing that the computed mode shapes are acceptable and highly consistent with the measured ones. The maximum root mean square and normalized dierences occurs for the mode 17, the fth vertical mode for the main span (V5). The averaged values of the root mean square and the normalized dierence for the rst 18 modes are 0.097 and 0.191,

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1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

339

(a)
1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20
FEM South FEM North Measure South Measure North 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

(b) Fig. 18. Second torsional mode z direction (T2, mode 15): (a) Cable component and (b) Deck component.

respectively. These dierences are acceptable, considering the unavoidable errors in the eld measurements. 5. Calibration of Stresses/Strains The present study aims to establish a ne 3D nite element model for structural performance evaluation at stress/strain level, based on which a bridge rating system can be developed. Therefore, calibration of the stresses/strains at monitoring

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locations installed with strain sensors is also conducted by comparing the computed and measured results. Due to the limited space, the calibration of strains at the cross frame ange is presented. The main span cross section 337.5 m about one-fourth of the main span to Tsing Yi tower (Figs. 1 and 19(a)) is selected as the monitoring cross section. The strain sensor SSTLS04 is on the top of the cross frame beam ange, as shown in Fig. 19(b). The strains/stresses acquired by this sensor when individual trains were passing the monitoring section are used for comparison with the computed results. The conguration of the trains is shown in Fig. 20. Each train contains several cars, and eight-car train and seven-car train are typical ones. Each car has two axles, with a spacing of 14.350 m. For the neighboring cars, the front axle of the back car is 6.125 m from the back axle of the front car. When one individual train passes the monitoring cross section, the variation of the measured strain is shown in Fig. 21, for an eight-car train and a seven-car train, respectively. Using the developed model and computation of moving loading eect, the computed strain is also shown in Fig. 21. In order to quantify the agreement between the measured and computed
CL OF BRIDGE

(a)

740 500 SSTLS04 SSTLS04

J1

DETAIL J

Unit : mm
(b)

VIEW J1

Fig. 19. Location of the sensor for strain/stress comparisons: (a) Main-span cross section 337.5 m to Tsing Yi tower and (b) Location of Sensor SSTLS04.

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14.350

6.125

14.350

6.125 Unit: m

6.125

14.350

6.125

14.350

Fig. 20. Conguration of trains.

35

30

25

Strain ()

20

15

10

Measurement Computation

0 84.5 85 85.5 86 86.5 87 87.5 88 88.5 89 89.5

Time (s)

(a)
35

30

25

Strain ()

20

15

10

Measurement Computation

1077.5 1078 1078.5 1079 1079.5 1080 1080.5 1081 1081.5 1082 1082.5
Time (s)

(b) Fig. 21. Strain variation due to the passing of a train: (a) Eight-car train and (b) Seven-car train.

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results, the relative dierence r2 and correlation coecient R are dened as Pn P " " 2 j n "mi m "ci c j " " i1 P r2 i1 n mi 2 ci ; R p ; P Pn " mi "mi m 2 n "ci c 2 " " i1 i1 i1

" where "mi is measured strain, "ci is computed strain, m is mean value of measured strain, and  c is mean value of computed strain. The closer to zero r2 is and the closer " to 1 R is, the better the agreement between the computed and measured results. The values of r2 and R are 0.04 and 0.90 for the case of eight-car train, and 0.036 and 0.80 for the case of seven-car train. Therefore, a good agreement between the measured and computed strain results is obtained. 6. Conclusions A health monitoring oriented 3D nite element model of the cable suspension of the Tsing Ma Bridge has been established and calibrated using the dynamic characteristics and stresses/strains. The details on modeling bridge components, integrating all the bridge component models, modeling of the connections among the bridge components, and modeling of the supports (or boundary conditions) of the global bridge model have been presented. Due to the unique modeling requirement of stress/strain level for structural performance analysis, more than 300 thousand nodes, 450 thousand elements including about 50 thousand MPCs are used and 1.2 million DOFs are involved in the entire model. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the most detailed bridge model with the greatest number of elements ever reported. Its success depends on the modern hardware and software development of computation technologies. The calibration of dynamic characteristics of the bridge model is carried out by comparing the computation and eld measurement results of modal frequencies and mode shapes, and a good agreement is found. The rst 18 modal frequencies and mode shapes are computed using the modal analysis module SOL 103. For the mode shapes, dynamic interactions among vertical, lateral, torsional, and longitudinal motions, among deck, cables, and towers, and among main span and approach spans are found. Eight classications of mode shapes are identied in the rst 18 modes. The results from eld measurement of the Tsing Ma Bridge after the completion of deck are used for the dynamic calibration. The 18 modal frequencies and mode shapes obtained from the eld measurement are compared with their counterparts of computed results. The computed results agree well with the measured results. The calibration of stresses/strains conducted by comparing the computed and measured results of stresses/strains due to individual passing trains also shows a good agreement. This structural health monitoring orientated nite element model can be used not only for the simulation of damage scenarios for investigation of diagnosis and prognosis algorithms, but also for the stress/strain analysis to establish the structural performance relationship between instrumented components/locations by WASHMS and those that are not instrumented; and a bridge rating system will be further developed

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for health monitoring, safety evaluation, fatigue life assessment, and decision making for inspection and maintenance.

Acknowledgments The nancial support from the Highways Department of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU Account No.: K-ZB43), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Account No.: PolyU 5299/05E), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Account No.: 90915008) is gratefully acknowledged. All views expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors.

References
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