Modeling suspension bridges through the von Kármán quasilinear plate equations

Abstract

A rectangular plate modeling the deck of a suspension bridge is considered. The plate may widely oscillate, which suggests to consider models from nonlinear elasticity. The von Kármán plate model is studied, complemented with the action of the hangers and with suitable boundary conditions describing the behavior of the deck. The oscillating modes are determined in full detail. Existence and multiplicity of static equilibria are then obtained under different assumptions on the strength of the buckling load.