Analytical Assessment of the Effect of Vertical Earthquake Motion on RC Bridge Piers
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents analytical assessment of the effect of vertical earthquake ground motion on RC bridge piers. A bridge structure damaged during the Northridge Earthquake and a Federal Highway concept bridge design are examined. The effects of a suite of earthquake ground motion records with different vertical-to-horizontal peak acceleration ratios on the two bridges are presented and the results are compared with the case of horizontal-only excitation. The effects of arrival time interval between horizontal and vertical acceleration peaks are also reported and compared to the case of coincident motion. It is observed that the inclusion of the vertical component of ground motion has an important effect on the response at all levels and components. It is therefore concluded that vertical motion should be included in analysis for assessment and design, especially that there are no particular challenges impeding its inclusion.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The work presented in this paper was supported by the NEESR-SG project (Seismic Simulation and Design of Bridge Columns under Combined Actions and Implications on System Response—PI David Sanders) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Award No. NSFCMMI-0530737 and by the Mid-America Earthquake Center funded by the NSF under Award No. NSFEEC-9701785.
References
AASHTO. (1995). Standard specifications for highway bridges, division I-A: Seismic design, 15th Ed., Washington, D.C.
Abrahamson, N. A., and Litehiser, J. J. (1989). “Attenuation of vertical peak acceleration.” Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 79(3), 549–580.
Ambraseys, N. N., and Simpson, K. A. (1996). “Prediction of vertical response spectra in Europe.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 25(4), 401–412.
Ang, B. G., Priestley, M. J. N., and Paulay, T. (1989). “Seismic shear strength of circular reinforced concrete columns.” ACI Struct. J., 86(1), 45–49.
Bentz, E. C. (2000). “Sectional analysis of reinforced concrete members.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto.
Bhide, S. B., and Collins, M. P. (1989). “Influence of axial tension on the shear capacity of reinforced concrete members.” ACI Struct. J., 86(5), 570–581.
Bozorgnia, Y., and Campbell, K. W. (2004). “The vertical-to-horizontal response spectral ratio and tentative procedures for developing simplified V/H and vertical design spectra.” J. Earthquake Eng., 8(2), 175–207.
Broderick, B. M., and Elnashai, A. S. (1995). “Analysis of the failure of Interstate 10 freeway ramp during the Northridge earthquake of 17 January 1994.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 24(2), 189–208.
Button, M. R., Cronin, C. J., and Mayes, R. L. (2002). “Effect of vertical motions on seismic response of bridges.” J. Struct. Eng., 128(12), 1551–1564.
Calderone, A. J., Lehman, D. E., and Moehle, J. P. (2000). “Behavior of reinforced concrete bridge columns having varying aspect ratios and varying lengths of confinement.” PEER-2000/08, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univ. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif.
Collier, C. J., and Elnashai, A. S. (2001). “A procedure for combining vertical and horizontal seismic action effects.” J. Earthquake Eng., 5(4), 521–539.
Elgamal, A., and He, L. (2004). “Vertical earthquake ground motion records: An overview.” J. Earthquake Eng., 8(5), 663–697.
Elnashai, A. S., Papanikolaou, V., and Lee, D. (2004). “Zeus NL—A system for inelastic analysis of structures.” CD-release 04-01, Mid-America Earthquake Center, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill.
Elnashai, A. S., and Papazoglou, A. J. (1997). “Procedure and spectra for analysis of RC structures subjected to strong vertical earthquake loads.” J. Earthquake Eng., 1(1), 121–156.
FHWA. (1996). “Seismic design of bridges—Design example no. 4: Three-span continuous CIP concrete bridge.” FHWA-SA-97-009, Washington, D.C.
Gupta, P. R., and Collins, M. P. (2001). “Evaluation of shear design procedures for reinforced concrete members under axial compression.” ACI Struct. J., 98(4), 537–547.
Kim, S. J. (2008). “Seismic assessment of RC structures considering vertical ground motion.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill.
Kunnath, S. K., Erduran, E., Chai, Y. H., and Yashinsky, M. (2008). “Effect of near-fault vertical ground motions on seismic response of highway overcrossings.” J. Bridge Eng., 13(3), 282–290.
Lee, D. H., and Elnashai, A. S. (2001). “Seismic analysis of RC bridge columns with flexure-shear interaction.” J. Struct. Eng., 127(5), 546–553.
Newmark, N. M., Blume, J. A., and Kapur, K. K. (1973). “Seismic design spectra for nuclear power plants.” J. Power Div., 99(2), 287–303.
Oppenheim, A. V., and Schafer, R. W. (1989). Discrete-time signal processing, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Papazoglou, A. J., and Elnashai, A. S. (1996). “Analytical and field evidence of the damaging effect of vertical earthquake ground motion.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 25, 1109–1137.
Priestley, M. J. N., Verma, R., and Xiao, Y. (1994). “Seismic shear strength of reinforced concrete columns.” J. Struct. Eng., 120(8), 2310–2329.
Saadeghvariri, M. A., and Foutch, D. A. (1991). “Dynamic behavior of R/C highway bridges under the combined effect of vertical and horizontal earthquake motions.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 20, 535–549.
Yu, C. P. (1996). “Effect of vertical earthquake components on bridge responses.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 2 • February 2011
Pages: 252 - 260
Copyright
© 2011 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 30, 2008
Accepted: Aug 8, 2010
Published online: Aug 25, 2010
Published in print: Feb 2011
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.