CONFLICTING THEORIES ABOUT COLLAPSE OF

THE TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE

 Basics of theory of vibrations
 Resonance
 Damping

 Single Degree of Freedom

 Equation of motion

 Behavior of structures under wind loads

 Vortex shedding
Basics of theory of vibrations

• The theory of vibrations is mainly applied to the study

of oscillatory motions of bodies and forces
associated with them.

• All bodies possessing mass and elasticity are capable of

vibration.

There are two general classes of vibrations namely

• Free vibrations and

• Forced vibrations.
Resonance

• Every system has a natural frequency.

• The system is put under forced oscillation mode if a
periodic force is applied.
• Amplitude of the oscillations increases when the
frequency of the external force matches with the
natural frequency of the system, thereby transferring
energy to the system ; this condition is called
resonance.

Damping

• Defined as “the process by which the vibratory energy is

dissipated, the amplitude of the vibrations
decrease with time”.
• All vibrating systems are subject to damping to some
degree since energy is dissipated by friction and
other resistances.
Types of damping

Damping in a structure takes several forms, all

of which are present in some extent when an attempt is
made to measure the value of damping.

• Material damping: refers to the energy that is

dissipated in the material itself, generally at a
microscopic level.

• System Damping: is the damping of the assemblage of

members takes into account loss associated with
the connections and also the losses in the
individual elements.

• Radiation damping: is the damping that leaves the

structure and the energy is dissipated in
the environment.
Damping can be manifested in several forms, such as

• Decay of free vibrations.

• The resistive force provided by a system, being driven at

resonance, thus imposing a finite bound to the
response amplitude.

• Attenuation of the propagating vibrations.

• Energy absorption in the structural system subjected to

the shock or random excitation such as
earthquakes or explosions.
Single Degree of Freedom

Elements of a vibratory system

(Generalized model representing SDOF system with damping)

Degree of freedom of a vibratory system is defined as “the

number of independent spatial coordinates necessary to define its
configuration”.
Equation of motion

With respect to the generalized model representing one degree

of freedom shown above, the application of Newton’s second
law can be made as below.
The forces acting on the mass (M) are
1. Gravitational force (Mg) which is constant.
2. Spring force K (X + δ st) which always opposes the
displacement.
3. Damping force CX’ which opposes the velocity.
4. Excitation force = F (t).

If mass is constant, the rate of change of momentum is equal

to the mass times its acceleration. Equation of motion of the
system is represented by
MX’’ + CX’ + KX = F(t)
The above equation is the equation of motion of multi-degree
freedom (MDOF) system as well, in which case M, C, & K
represent the mass, damping and stiffness matrices
respectively while X , X’ , X’’ & represent the displacement,
velocity and acceleration vectors respectively. The solution
(eigen values) of the characteristic equation yields all the
natural frequencies of the MDOF system.
Behavior of structures under wind loads
• The bridge deck may be exposed to cross winds to a greater or lesser
extent depending on the location of bridge.
• Flow of air tends to induce bending and torsional oscillations.
• Phenomenon of FLUTTER occurs during small variations in the
directions of wind inducing lifting effect of the bridge deck.
• Shape of the deck governs the airflow, if the section is badly
streamlined, vortices form as the air passes and can introduce the
danger of Vortex shedding.
The deck section experiences static forces due to wind, they are
1. Horizontal load T
2. Vertical load N
3. Torsional load M, which depend upon the following factors

Deck section subjected to wind forces

• The wind pressure (q).
• Shape of the section (shape coefficients CT, CN, CM should be
determined by wind tunnel experiments).
• The angle of incidence of the wind on the deck (α).
Auto excitated oscillations or Flutter

• The forces supplying the energy are controlled by the

movement itself. The resulting instability is
known as Flutter.
• Beyond a certain wind speed, known as critical wind
speed (Vcrit), the deck receives more energy
than can be dissipated by damping. The result is
to produce combined bending and torsional
movements due to aerodynamic forces, with
rapidly increasing amplitude and no limit other
than destruction.

V
Lift

Lift t


Simplified representation of flutter of a bridge deck

Vortex shedding
• Bluff bodies generate separated flow or detached flows over its surfaces
i.e., the flow lines do not follow the contours of the body, but
break away at certain points.
• At these points where the flow lines breakaway, free shear layers are
formed each containing concentrations of rotating fluid
particles.
• These vortex arrays arrange themselves in two rows with opposite
directions of circulation. This entire arrangement is popularly
known as “Vortex Street or Karman Vortex Street”.

Vortex shedding around the bridge deck setting in oscillations

 Specifications of the Design

 Circumstances of the Collapse

 Conflicting theories regarding the

Collapse

1. Simple Resonance Theory

2. Self-excitation Theory

3. Vortex Shedding

4. Aerodynamic Instability
 Specifications of the Design

1.The TNB had following dimensions

Main span (unsupported span) = 854m
Deck width = 11.9m
Depth of stiffening girders = 2.45m
2.Solid-web plate girders were used to provide a box-like
stiffness to the bridge deck.
3.Solid-web plate girders used were relatively
lightweight, thin which resulted in a flexible deck.
4.Only two thin towers supported the mile-long bridge,
leaving an unsupported span 2800 feet (854m)
long.
5.The girders were placed at a remarkably shallow depth
of just eight feet below the roadway.

Cross section of Solid-web-plate girder

Circumstances of the Collapse

1. The web-plate girders proved insufficient during the

bridge’s brief lifetime, since the plate girders
stiffened the deck only along the lateral direction
and could thus deflect only a small range of
vertical motions.

2. The girders did not allow air to flow through the

structure. The consequence of this restricted airflow is that
the swirling winds, no matter how small, exerted forces on
both the top and bottom of the span, causing the
bridge to twist and roll along the length of the bridge
as a steady undulation.

3. The bridge would often rise and fall as much four feet
vertically from its resting position under the
influence of winds of moderate intensities.
Conflicting Theories Regarding the Collapse

After the fall of the TNB, the most popular

explanations that emerged were

1. The Theory of simple resonance: the periodic wind

gusts caused the amplitude of the bridge’s oscillation
to increase with time until it finally collapsed.

2. The Self-excitation theory: the changing angle of the

deck during its oscillation actually caused a complex
interaction between the wind and the structure that
resulted in the bridge’s ultimate failure.

3. The Theory of vortex shedding: the shedding of

vortices drove the ever increasing bridge oscillations
which resulted in its collapse.

4. A more conflicting theory was about the response of

bridge against wind forces questioning the
Aerodynamic stability of bridge.
Simple Resonance Theory

Applying the resonance theory described earlier

to the fall of the TNB, the highest response amplitude of
the bridge would have occurred when the frequency of the
wind approached the natural mechanical frequency of the
bridge. However, the fundamentals of this theory imply a
synchronous relationship between the wind and the
bridge’s movements

The problem with this theory is that resonance is a very

precise phenomenon, requiring the driving force
frequency to be at, or near, one of the system's natural
frequencies in order to produce large oscillations. In case
of TNB, the driving force (wind) frequency and the
natural frequency of the bridge had to be maintained
steadily for up to 90minutes.
The turbulent wind pressure, however, would have varied
randomly with time. Thus, turbulence would seem unlikely
to have maintained the periodicity necessary to build up
such an enormously destructive force.
Self-excitation Theory

The more complex notion of self-excitation, claims that the

angle of the bridge deck from the horizontal during its
torsional oscillation and the rate of change of that angle are
the key aspects to understanding the collapse and the driving
force behind the oscillations is not purely a function of time.

Based on this theory

• Once a particular frequency of twisting began, a complex

interaction ensued between the structure.
• After a jump-start from just one unfortunately timed gust,
the bridge itself created the catastrophic
aerodynamic forces that led to its collapse.
• The feedback of its position with respect to each new gust
is the precisely source of the self-excitation.
• Since this model relies more on theories of structural
physics, it is more feasible and credible within the
scientific community than the explanation based
entirely on simple resonance.
Vortex Shedding
This theory explains the following
• The periodic vortex shedding frequency Fs typically
misidentified as the source of the resonant frequency that caused
the bridge to fail.
• Vortices were pouring off the top and bottom of bridge
deck, driving the bridge at its resonant frequency,
which eventually led to its collapse.
• Fs = f i.e., frequency of the vortices was equal or nearly
equal to the natural frequency of the bridge. This condition
created resonance resulting in increased amplitude of the
oscillations and the bridge failed.

This theory fails to convince that the natural vortex shedding

frequency was calculated to be 1 Hz and the torsional mode
frequency was 0.2 Hz. These two frequencies were totally out of
sync with the actual catastrophic oscillation still going on.
Hence, it can be concluded that natural vortex shedding was not
the cause of collapse. In addition to vortex shedding, a flutter-
like pattern of vortices may have formed at a frequency
coincident with the torsional oscillation mode. Whether these
flutter vortices were a cause is also unclear.
Aerodynamic Instability

The following scenario shows how aerodynamic

instability may have caused the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
to fail. For simplicity, consider the motion of only one
span half. Assume that the wind direction was not
perfectly horizontal, perhaps striking the bridge span
from below, as shown in figure with span at initial rest
position.

Span at initial rest position

Span rotating in the clockwise direction

Span rotating in the counter clockwise direction

The aerodynamic behavior can be summed up as follows
• The cycles of oscillations continue in a repetitive
manner.
• Wind force varies as a function of the span angle
during the cycle.
• One possibility of failure mode is that, the span
experiences fatigue failure due to an excessive
number of stress reversals.
• Other failure mode is that the angular displacement
increases in an unstable manner until the material is
stressed beyond its yield point, and then beyond its
ultimate stress limit. Regardless, the bridge collapses.

As a final note, the aerodynamic instability oscillation is

not a resonant oscillation since the wind does not have a
forcing frequency at, or near, the bridge's torsional
mode frequency.
Conclusion
1. The assumption made during modeling decreases the
accuracy of the model.
2. There is still a great deal to be learnt from the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge disaster.
3. The study of the fall highlights the connection between the
branches of science and engineering.
4. The TNB bridge disaster emphasizes on the fact that lot of
instrumentation and wind tunnel experiments on scale
models has to be carried out.
5. Proper experiments on test models should be conducted to
study the behavior of structures against dynamic loading and
other aspects of physics.
6. Finally, with many conflicting hypotheses regarding the
collapse of the TNB, engineers and physicists should
continue to postulate and synthesize their ideas ably
supported by experimental tests in order to develop a more
solid and unified theory.
Thank You