Reduction of pounding effects in elevated bridges during earthquakes

✍ Scribed by Jankowski, Robert; Wilde, Krzysztof; Fujino, Yozo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-8847
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9845(200002)29:2<195::aid-eqe897>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

Pounding of adjacent superstructure segments in elevated bridges during severe earthquakes can result in signi"cant structural damage. The aim of this paper is to analyse several methods of reduction of the negative e!ects of collisions induced by the seismic wave propagation e!ect. The analysis is conducted on a detailed three-dimensional structural component model of an isolated highway bridge. The results show that the in#uence of pounding on the structural response is signi"cant in the longitudinal direction of the bridge and signi"cantly depends on the gap size between superstructure segments. The smallest response can be obtained for very small gap sizes and for gap sizes large enough to prevent pounding. Further analysis indicates that the bridge behaviour can be e!ectively improved by placing hard rubber bumpers between segments and by sti! linking the segments one with another. The experimental results show that, for the practical application of such connectors, shock transmission units can be used.