Experimental Evaluation of Bridge Column Foundation Rocking Behavior
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 11
Abstract
An experimental study was conducted at the University of Nevada, Reno, on the seismic performance of horizontally curved steel plate girder bridges. A two-fifth scale, three-span highly curved bridge was constructed on four shake tables and subjected to earthquake motions. Bridge footings were free to uplift during seismic loading, and neoprene pads were placed underneath the footings to simulate soil effects. Prior studies on the effect of rocking foundation systems concluded that rocking has the ability to reduce the damage in bridge columns in addition to being a good source of damping through the soil inelastic behavior. This paper describes the results from the experiment on a complete bridge system designed with rocking foundations. The rocking behavior was able to considerably limit the damage in the columns and the residual displacement of the bridge under earthquake motions equivalent to 2.5 times the earthquake intensity for which the bridge was designed. For high earthquake intensities, instead of experiencing overturning, the effect of rocking decreased, causing damage in the plastic hinge regions similar to a fixed-base column behavior. However, the overall damage was still less than in a fixed-base column.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the FHWA for funding this project under contract DTFH61-07-C-00031: Improving the Seismic Resilience of the Federal Aid Highway System with Dr. Wen-huei Phillip Yen as the contracting officer’s technical representative. Other faculty members, graduate students, and laboratory staff also have contributed in this work, especially the experimental part, which includes Dr. Ahmad Itani, Dr. Manos Maragakis, Dr. Gokhan Pekcan, Dr. Patrick Laplace, Kelly Doyle, Arash Zaghi, Moustafa Al-Ani, Eric Monzon, Mike Levi, Nathan Harrison, Joseph Weiser, Hartanto Wibowo, Chunli Wei, Danielle Sanford, Chad Lyttle, Todd Lyttle, and Robert Nelson.
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© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 4, 2017
Accepted: May 9, 2018
Published online: Sep 6, 2018
Published in print: Nov 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Feb 6, 2019
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