The failure of the Tacoma bridge: A physical model

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 74, Issue 8, 2006, Pages 706-716

  Green, Daniel ^a   Unruh, William G ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33746887373     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.2201854     Document Type: Article

References (12)

1. Nevell H. Fletcher and Thomas D. Rossing, Physics of Musical Instruments (Springer, New York, 1998), 2nd ed. See especially Chaps. 10, 13, and 16.
2. K. Y. Billah and R. H. Scanlan, "Resonance, Tacoma Narrows bridge failure and undergraduate physics textbooks," Am. J. Phys. 59(2), 118-124 (1991).
3. O. H. Ammann, T. Von Karman, and G. B. Woodruff, "The failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge," Report to the Honorable John M. Carmody, Administrator, Federal Works Agency, Washington, DC, 28 March 1941. This report is difficult to find. The Library of Congress does not have a copy, but apparently the Department of Transportation (〈http://dotlibrary.dot.gov/ 〉) has.
4. It is also reprinted in Bulletin of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, TX, 4th Series, Vol. 15, No. 1, January 1, 1944. This issue may be equally difficult to find, although the Library of Congress does have a copy.
5. See for example, David Newland, "Pedestrian excitation of bridges: Recent examples," in Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Sound and Vibration, Stockholm, July 2003, 〈/www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~den/ pedestrian_excitation.pdf〉.
6. Th. von Karman, "Über den Mechanismus des Widerstandes, den ein bewegter Korper in einer Flüssigkeit erfahrt," Göttinger Nachrichten Math. Phys. Klasse 509, 547 (1911).
7. P. J. McKenna, "Large torsional oscillations in suspension bridges revisited: Fixing an old approximation," Am. Math. Monthly 106, 1-18 (1999).
8. P. J. McKenna and Cilliam O'Tuama, "Large torsional oscillations in suspension bridges visited again: Vertical forcing creates torsional response," Am. Math. Monthly 108, 738-745 (2001).
9. Barnet Elliott, Harbine Monroe, and Aug. von Boecklin, "The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge." Film available from The Camera Shop, Tacoma, WA, 〈www.camerashoptacoma.com/〉. Frames from the film are used with permission of The Camera Shop.
10. Y. Kubo, K. Hirata, and K. Mikawa, "Mechanism of aerodynamic vibration of shallow bridge girder section," J. Wind. Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 42, 1297-1308 (1992).
11. A. Larsen, "Aerodynamics of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge - 60 years later," Struc. Eng. Intern. 4, 243-248 (2000).
12. G. Morgenthal, "Aerodynamic analysis of structures using high-resolution vortex particle methods," Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 2002.