Symposium on dynamic behaviour of bridges held at transport and road research laboratory on 19 May 1977

The main objective of the symposium was to bring the different aspects of dynamic behaviour into a common perspective, and the emphasis throughout was on design and performance in the field, and not on laboratory experiments. The main concern was with bridge design and the response to dynamic excitation, with papers dealing with the background to proposals for new rules, design problems, measured bridge response to normal usage, and comparison of calculated and measured parameters. Special attention was given to damping because the Merrison Inquiry of 1973 identified a need for more accurate values of damping factors for steel box girder bridges.For separate abstracts of papers presented at this symposium see IRRD 229936-43.