Abstract
Seismic design principles of highway bridges across the globe have undergone significant modifications over the last decades, from little consideration of seismic effects to adoption of modern ductile detailing principles. The existence of bridges with such diverse design methodologies renders vulnerability assessment for future earthquakes particularly challenging. Consequently, robust analytical models are required to capture varied failure mechanisms of differently designed bridges to aid the systematic impact assessment of design code evolution on seismic fragility. This study addressed the need by developing high-fidelity nonlinear finite-element models that can simulate different structural failure modes (shear, flexure-shear, and flexure). Following analytical model validation with past experimental results, this paper presented a framework for the methodical assessment of design code evolution on seismic performance and failure probability of bridge piers. Results revealed significant improvement in seismic performance under successive design code revisions and highlighted the necessity to account for shear modeling in vulnerability assessment of older designed bridge piers. Lastly, the latest code provisions of leading international seismic design guidelines were compared to highlight key differences among code provisions that need attention for possible harmonization of various codes across the globe.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
The following data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request: (1) OpenSees executable capable of capturing flexure-shear and shear failure using user-defined strength and deformation limit curves; (2) selected suite of ground motions for fragility analysis of structure in the Himalayan region of India; (3) finite-element model of era-based bridge piers in India; and (4) simulation results of era-based fragility analysis.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (Grant No. 14IRTAPSG008) and the Department of Science and Technology (Grant No. ECR/2016/001622). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
AASHTO. 1998. LRFD bridge design specifications—S.I. units. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: AASHTO.
AASHTO. 2011. Guide specifications for LRFD seismic bridge design. Washington, DC: AASHTO.
AASHTO. 2014. LRFD bridge design specifications—US units. 7th ed. Washington, DC: AASHTO.
Anbazhagan, P., A. Kumar, and T. G. Sitharam. 2013. “Ground motion prediction equation considering combined dataset of recorded and simulated ground motions.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 53 (Oct): 92–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2013.06.003.
Ancheta, T. D., et al. 2014. “NGA-West2 database.” Earthquake Spectra 30 (3): 989–1005. https://doi.org/10.1193/070913EQS197M.
ASCE. 2013. Seismic evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings. ASCE/SEI 41-13. Reston, VA: ASCE.
ATC (Applied Technology Council). 1983. Seismic retrofitting guidelines for highway bridges. ATC-6-2. Redwood City, CA: ATC.
ATC (Applied Technology Council). 1996. Improved seismic design criteria for California bridges: provisional recommendations. ATC-32. Redwood City, CA: ATC.
Avşar, Ö., A. Yakut, and A. Caner. 2011. “Analytical fragility curves for ordinary highway bridges in Turkey.” Earthquake Spectra 27 (4): 971–996. https://doi.org/10.1193/1.3651349.
Baker, J. W., and C. Lee. 2017. “An improved algorithm for selecting ground motions to match a conditional spectrum.” J. Earthquake Eng. 22 (4): 708–723. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632469.2016.1264334.
Baker, J. W., T. Lin, S. K. Shahi, and N. Jayaram. 2011. New ground motion selection procedures and selected motions for the PEER transportation research program. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California.
Baradaran Shoraka, M., and K. J. Elwood. 2013. “Mechanical model for non ductile reinforced concrete columns.” J. Earthquake Eng. 17 (7): 937–957. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632469.2013.794718.
Baradaran Shoraka, M., T. Y. Yang, and K. J. Elwood. 2013. “Seismic loss estimation of non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn. 42 (2): 297–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.2213.
Berry, M. P., and M. O. Eberhard. 2008. Performance modeling strategies for modern reinforced concrete bridge columns. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California.
Billah, A. M., and M. S. Alam. 2015. “Seismic fragility assessment of highway bridges: A state-of-the-art review.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 11 (6): 804–832. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2014.912243.
Billah, A. M., and M. S. Alam. 2016. “Performance-based seismic design of shape memory alloy–reinforced concrete bridge piers. I: Development of performance-based damage states.” J. Struct. Eng. 142 (12): 04016140. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001458.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards). 1962. Recommendations for earthquake resistant design of structures. IS:1893. New Delhi, India: BIS.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards). 1975. Criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures. IS:1893. New Delhi, India: BIS.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards). 1993. Ductile detailing of reinforced concrete structures subjected to seismic forces—Code of practice. IS:13920. New Delhi, India: BIS.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards). 2002. Criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures: Part 1-General provisions and buildings. IS:1893. New Delhi, India: BIS.
CALTRANS (California Department of Transportation). 1990. Bridge design specifications. Sacramento, CA: California Dept. of Transportation.
CALTRANS (California Department of Transportation). 1999. Seismic design criteria. Sacramento, CA: California Dept. of Transportation.
CALTRANS (California Department of Transportation). 2010. Seismic design criteria. Sacramento, CA: California Dept. of Transportation.
Calvi, G., A. Pavese, A. Rasulo, and D. Bolognini. 2005. “Experimental and numerical studies on the seismic response of RC hollow bridge piers.” Bull. Earthquake Eng. 3 (3): 267–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-005-2240-0.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). 2005. Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance—Part 2: Bridges. EN 1998-2. Brussels, Belgium: CEN.
Choi, E., R. DesRoches, and B. Nielson. 2004. “Seismic fragility of typical bridges in moderate seismic zones.” Eng. Struct. 26 (2): 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2003.09.006.
Chopra, A. K., and C. Chiatanapakdee. 2003. Inelastic deformation ratios for design and evaluation of structures. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California.
Cornell, C., F. Jalayer, R. O. Hamburger, and D. A. Foutch. 2002. “Probabilistic basis for 2000 SAC federal emergency management agency steel moment frame guidelines.” J. Struct. Eng. 128 (4): 526–533. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2002)128:4(526).
Elwood, K. J. 2004. “Modelling failures in existing reinforced concrete columns.” Can. J. Civ. Eng. 31 (5): 846–859. https://doi.org/10.1139/l04-040.
Ghannoum, W. M., and J. P. Moehle. 2012. “Dynamic collapse analysis of a concrete frame sustaining column axial failures.” ACI Struct. J. 109 (3): 403–412.
Ghee, A., M. Priestley, and T. Paulay. 1989. “Seismic shear strength of circular reinforced concrete columns.” ACI Struct. J. 86 (1): 45–59.
Ghosh, J., and P. Sood. 2016. “Consideration of time-evolving capacity distributions and improved degradation models for seismic fragility assessment of aging highway bridges.” Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf. 154 (Oct): 197–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2016.06.001.
Goswami, R., and C. V. R. Murty. 2005. “Seismic vulnerability of RC bridge piers designed as per current IRC codes including Interim IRC:6-2002 provisions.” J. Indian Roads Congr., New Delhi 66 (2): 379–426.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 1958. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 1964. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6 New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 1966. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2000a. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2000b. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section III: Cement concrete (plain and reinforced). IRC:21. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2000c. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section VII: Foundations and substructure. IRC:78. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2002. Interim measures of IRC:6-2000 for seismic provisions. Interim IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2010. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2011. Code of practice for concrete road bridges. IRC:112. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2014. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
IRC (Indian Roads Congress). 2017. Standard specifications and code of practice for road bridges, Section II: Loads and stresses. IRC:6. New Delhi, India: IRC.
Jain, S. K., et al. 2001. Preliminary observations on the origin and effects of the January 26, 2001 Bhuj (Gujarat, India) Earthquake. Oakland, CA: EERI.
Jain, S. K., and C. V. R. Murty. 1998a. “A state-of-the-art review on seismic design of bridges-Part I: Historical development and AASHTO code.” Indian Concr. J. 72 (Feb): 79–90.
Jain, S. K., and C. V. R. Murty. 1998b. “A state-of-the-art review on seismic design of bridges-Part II: CALTRANS, TNZ and Indian codes.” Indian Concr. J. 72 (Mar): 129–142.
Jayaram, N., T. Lin, and J. Baker. 2011. “A computationally efficient ground-motion selection algorithm for matching a target response spectrum mean and variance.” Earthquake Spectra 27 (3): 797–815. https://doi.org/10.1193/1.3608002.
Jeon, J. S., L. N. Lowes, R. DesRoches, and I. Brilakis. 2015. “Fragility curves for non-ductile reinforced concrete frames that exhibit different component response mechanisms.” Eng. Struct. 85 (Feb): 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2014.12.009.
JRA (Japan Road Association). 1990. Design specifications for highway bridges, Part V: Seismic design. Tokyo: Maruzen.
Karim, K. R., and F. Yamazaki. 2003. “A simplified method of constructing fragility curves for highway bridges.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn. 32 (10): 1603–1626. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.291.
Kaviani, P., F. Zareian, and E. Taciroglu. 2012. “Seismic behavior of reinforced concrete bridges with skew-angled seat-type abutments.” Eng. Struct. 45 (Dec): 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2012.06.013.
Kim, I., C. Sun, and M. Shin. 2012. “Concrete contribution to initial shear strength of RC hollow bridge columns.” Struct. Eng. Mech. 41 (1): 43–65. https://doi.org/10.12989/sem.2012.41.1.043.
Kim, S. J., C. J. Holub, and A. S. Elnashai. 2011. “Analytical assessment of the effect of vertical earthquake motion on RC bridge piers.” J. Struct. Eng. 137 (2): 252–260. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0000306.
Kolias, B., M. N. Fardis, and A. Pecker. 2012. Designers’ guide to Eurocode 8: Design of bridges for earthquake resistance. London: ICE.
Kumar, R., S. C. Gupta, and A. Kumar. 2015. “Determination and identification of focal mechanism solutions for Himalayan earthquakes from waveform inversion employing ISOLA software.” Nat. Hazard. 76 (2): 1163–1181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1540-6.
Kwon, O., and A. Elnashai. 2006. “The effect of material and ground motion uncertainty on the seismic vulnerability curves of RC structure.” Eng. Struct. 28 (2): 289–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2005.07.010.
Liel, A. B., C. B. Haselton, and G. G. Deierlein. 2011. “Seismic collapse safety of reinforced concrete buildings. II: Comparative assessment of nonductile and ductile moment frames.” J. Struct. Eng. 137 (4): 492–502. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0000275.
Liu, K.-Y., W. Witarto, and K.-C. Chang. 2015. “Composed analytical models for seismic assessment of reinforced concrete bridge columns.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn. 44 (2): 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.2470.
Lu, B. Y., B. Q. Liu, M. Liu, and G. H. Xing. 2011. “Comparison and research on seismic performance between guidelines for seismic design of highway bridges and Eurocode 8 for seismic design of bridges.” In Vol. 163 of Advanced materials research, 4395–4400. Trans Tech.
Mander, J. B., M. J. Priestley, and R. Park. 1988. “Theoretical stress-strain model for confined concrete.” J. Struct. Eng. 114 (8): 1804–1826. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1988)114:8(1804).
McKay, M. D., R. J. Beckman, and W. J. Conover. 2000. “A comparison of three methods for selecting values of input variables in the analysis of output from a computer code.” Technometrics 42 (1): 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/00401706.2000.10485979.
McKenna, F., G. Fenves, and M. Scott. 2000. Open system for earthquake engineering simulation. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California.
Melchers, R. E. 2001. Structural reliability analysis and prediction. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley.
Mostafaei, H., and T. Kabeyasawa. 2007. “Axial-shear-flexure interaction approach for reinforced concrete columns.” ACI Struct. J. 104 (2): 218–226.
Ni Choine, M. 2014. “Seismic reliability assessment of aging integral bridges.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College.
Nielson, B. G., and R. DesRoches. 2007. “Analytical seismic fragility curves for typical bridges in the central and southeastern United States.” Earthquake Spectra 23 (3): 615–633. https://doi.org/10.1193/1.2756815.
Parool, N., and D. C. Rai. 2015. “Seismic fragility of multispan simply supported bridge with drop spans and steel bearings.” J. Bridge Eng. 20 (12): 04015021. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000778.
Priestley, M. N., G. M. Calvi, and M. J. Kowalsky. 2007. Displacement-based seismic design of structures. Pavia, Italy: IUSS.
Priestley, M. N., F. Seible, and G. M. Calvi. 1996. Seismic design and retrofit of bridges. New York: Wiley.
Priestley, M. N., R. Verma, and Y. Xiao. 1994. “Seismic shear strength of reinforced concrete columns.” J. Struct. Eng. 120 (8): 2310–2329. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1994)120:8(2310).
PWRI (Public Works Research Institute). 1998. Design specifications of highway bridges, Part V-Seismic design. PWRI-9810. Tokyo: Earthquake Disaster Prevention Research Centre.
Rajendran, K., and C. Rajendran. 2011. “Revisiting the earthquake sources in the Himalaya: Perspectives on past seismicity.” Tectonophysics 504 (1): 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2011.03.001.
Ramanathan, K., J. E. Padgett, and R. DesRoches. 2015. “Temporal evolution of seismic fragility curves for concrete box-girder bridges in California.” Eng. Struct. 97 (Aug): 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2015.03.069.
Ramanathan, K. N. 2012. “Next generation seismic fragility curves for California bridges incorporating the evolution in seismic design philosophy.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Saatcioglu, M., and G. Ozcebe. 1989. “Response of reinforced concrete columns to simulated seismic loading.” ACI Struct. J. 86 (1): 3–12.
Sezen, H. 2002. “Seismic behavior and modeling of reinforced concrete building columns.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley.
Sezen, H., and J. P. Moehle. 2004. “Shear strength model for lightly reinforced concrete columns.” J. Struct. Eng. 130 (11): 1692–1703. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2004)130:11(1692).
Sezen, H., and E. J. Setzler. 2008. “Reinforcement slip in reinforced concrete columns.” ACI Struct. J. 105 (3): 280–289.
Sharma, M., J. Douglas, and H. Bungum. 2009. “Ground-motion prediction equations based on data from the Himalayan and Zagros regions.” J. Earthquake Eng. 13 (8): 1191–1210. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632460902859151.
Shekhar, S., and P. Agarwal. 2015. “Seismic vulnerability analysis of bridge pier designed with different codal provisions.” Bridge Struct. Eng. 45 (1): 77–85.
Shekhar, S., J. Ghosh, and J. E. Padgett. 2018. “Seismic life-cycle cost analysis of ageing highway bridges under chloride exposure conditions: Modelling and recommendations.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 14 (7): 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2018.1437639.
Tecchio, G. 2013. “Simplified displacement-based approaches for seismic design and vulnerability assessment of multi-span RC bridges.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Univ. of Padova.
Wan, H. T., X. L. Han, and J. Ji. 2010. “Analyses of reinforced concrete columns by performance-based design method.” J. Cent. S. Univ. 41 (4): 1584–1589.
Zhao, J., and S. Sritharan. 2007. “Modeling of strain penetration effects in fiber-based analysis of reinforced concrete structures.” ACI Struct. J. 104 (2): 133–141.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 25 • Issue 2 • February 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 13, 2018
Accepted: Aug 27, 2019
Published online: Dec 4, 2019
Published in print: Feb 1, 2020
Discussion open until: May 4, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Bridge design
- Bridge engineering
- Bridge failures
- Bridges
- Bridges (by type)
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Design (by type)
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Earthquake engineering
- Engineering fundamentals
- Failure analysis
- Failures (by type)
- Geotechnical engineering
- Highway and road design
- Highway bridges
- Man-made disasters
- Seismic design
- Seismic tests
- Standards and codes
- Structural engineering
- Tests (by type)
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.