Development of portable footbridges for disaster relief

Abstract

This paper describes the design, analysis, fabrication and testing of portable pedestrian bridges for disaster relief. Two main ideas were used in the design of these bridges. One was the pantograph mechanism exploited to expand bridge structures rapidly and the other was the rigid body rotation of the bridge deck utilised to span a river without piers. Numerical simulations and experimental results showed that the bridges developed satisfy the specified design requirements. This study may provide engineering consultants with design concepts for rescue bridges that are convenient to store, carry, assemble, install, dismantle and reuse.