Effect of Suppressed DOF on a Rigid RC Bridge Response under Strong Earthquake Motion

NLTHA （nonlinear time history analysis） is impractical for widespread used by the professional engineer because it requires long and inefficient computational time involving complexities when six DOF （degree of freedom） per node is applied. The NLTHA nowadays is predicted by MPA （modal pushover analysis）. In this method, effects of higher modes on the dynamic response are considered to estimate seismic demands for structures. In this study, the effect of the reduction of number of DOF is analyzed using 3D NLTHA together with MPA of a rigid connection RC bridge under large earthquake motion. The results are compared with the 6 DOF NLTHA in terms of response of the structure and CPU time to obtain the most efficient computational effort. Result of NLTHA showed that the computational time of the structure both for 4 DOF （without two lateral torsional effects） and 3 DOF （without two lateral torsional and vertical displacements） was reduced significantly compared to the structure using 6 DOF. The reduction of computational time was close to fifty percent both for 4 and 3 DOF＇s. When the maximum responses between NLTHA and MPA are compared, it is found that the differences are insignificant.

A review on close-in blast performance of RC bridge columns

In recent decades,the increase in terrorist attacks highlights the necessity and importance of understanding of structural performance under accidental and intentionally malicious blast loads.As an important part of transportation infrastructure,bridges would inevitably suffer explosion hazards especially close-in explosion.Reinforced concrete(RC)bridge column is the most critical components of bridge structures,which is more prone to severe local damage under the action of close-in blast loading and can lead to progressive collapse with catastrophic consequences in most cases.Therefore,the blast performance of RC bridge columns under close-in explosions is of particular concern.Towards a better RC bridge column protection against close-in blast loadings,efforts have been mainly devoted to understanding dynamic response predictions of RC columns,numerical simulation techniques of close-in explosion and damage assessment of blast-damaged RC columns.This article presents a state-of-the-art review of the research status of RC columns subjected to close-in blast loads.The blast loading,experimental study and failure mode,uncoupled and coupled simulation method,damage assessment based on residual axial capacity,vulnerability analysis and machine learning are considered and reviewed.The merits and defects of the existing approaches are discussed,and some suggestions for possible improvement are proposed.Further investigation into the future development of this topic has also been identified.

Energy-based damage assessment of continuous-span reinforced concrete highway bridges

This paper conducts a comparative study on seismic damage to reinforced concrete(RC)bridges,using three damage models:Park and Ang,Hindi and Sexsmith,and input energy-based damage(IEBD)indices,and presents a global cumulative damage model based on the IEBD index to establish a practical damage assessment of an overall bridge system.A series of RC bridges are studied under seismic loadings,and to compare the efficiency and reliability of the damage indices,damage curves of RC piers are developed,and damage levels of piers are calculated at design basis earthquake(DBE)and maximum considered earthquake(MCE)levels.The global cumulative damage index is calculated for bridge models regarding damage values of components.The results indicate that the IEBD index shows a gradual progression of damage and provides reasonable values for different damage levels of piers compared to two other damage indices.Moreover,the global cumulative damage index shows the impact of induced damage to a certain component regarding the damage level of the overall bridge system.Moreover,this new approach is a relatively simple and practical tool for seismic damage assessment of RC bridge systems,which can be implemented in finite element models,particularly in the absence of experimental data.

Experimental research and finite element analysis of bridge piers failed in flexure-shear modes

In recent earthquakes, a large number of reinforced concrete （RC） bridges were severely damaged due to mixed flexure-shear failure modes of the bridge piers. An integrated experimental and finite element （FE） analysis study is described in this paper to study the seismic performance of the bridge piers that failed in flexure-shear modes. In the first part, a nonlinear cyclic loading test on six RC bridge piers with circular cross sections is carried out experimentally. The damage states, ductility and energy dissipation parameters, stiffness degradation and shear strength of the piers are studied and compared with each other. The experimental results suggest that all the piers exhibit stable flexural response at displacement ductilities up to four before exhibiting brittle shear failure. The ultimate performance of the piers is dominated by shear capacity due to significant shear cracking, and in some cases, rupturing of spiral bars. In the second part, modeling approaches describing the hysteretic behavior of the piers are investigated by using ANSYS software. A set of models with different parameters is selected and evaluated through comparison with experimental results. The influences of the shear retention coefficients between concrete cracks, the Bauschinger effect in longitudinal reinforcement, the bond-slip relationship between the longitudinal reinforcement and the concrete and the concrete failure surface on the simulated hysteretic curves are discussed. Then, a modified analysis model is presented and its accuracy is verified by comparing the simulated results with experimental ones. This research uses models available in commercial FE codes and is intended for researchers and engineers interested in using ANSYS software to predict the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete structures.

Modeling considerations in seismic assessment of RC bridges using state-of-practice structural analysis software tools

The increasing awareness of the general society toward the seismic safety of structures has led to more restrictive performance requirements hence, many times, to the need of using new and more accurate methods of analysis of structures. Among these, nonlinear static procedures are becoming, evermore, the preferred choice of the majority of design codes, as an alternative to complete nonlinear time-history analysis for seismic design and assessment of structures. The many available software tools should therefore be evaluated and well understood, in order to be easily and soundly employed by the practitioners. The study presented herein intends to contribute to this need by providing further insight with respect to the use of commonly employed structural analysis software tools in nonlinear analysis of bridge structures. A comparison between different nonlinear modeling assumptions is presented, together with the comparison with real experimental results. Furthermore, alternative adaptive pushover procedures are proposed and applied to a case study bridge, based on a generic plastic hinge model. The adopted structural analysis program proved to be accurate, yielding reliable estimates, both in terms of local plastic hinge behavior and global structural behavior.

Probability-based practice-oriented seismic behaviour assessment of simply supported RC bridges considering the variation and correlation in pier performance

Probability-based seismic performance assessment of in-service bridges has gained much attention in the scientific community during the past decades. The nonlinear static pushover analysis is critical for describing the seismic behaviour of bridges subjected to moderate to high seismicity due to its simplicity. However, in existing analysis methods,the generation of pushover curve needs tremendous amount of computational costs and requires skills, which may halter its application in practice, implying the importance of developing practice-oriented analysis method with improved efficiency. Moreover, the bridge pier performance has been modelled as deterministic, indicating that the variation associated with the pier material and mechanical properties remains unaddressed. The correlation in the performance of different piers also exists due to the common design provisions and construction conditions but has neither been taken into account. This paper develops a simplified pushover analysis procedure for the seismic assessment of simply supported RC bridges. With the proposed method, the pushover curve of the bridge can be obtained explicitly without complex finite element modelling. A random factor is introduced to reflect the uncertainty in relation to the pushover curve. The correlation in the pier performance is considered by employing the Gaussian copula function to construct the joint probability distribution. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate theapplicability of the method and to investigate the impact of variation and correlation in bridge pier behaviour on the seismic performance assessment.

An investigation of the seismic behavior of a deck-type reinforced concrete arch bridge

This paper attempts to explore potential benefits of form in a deck-type reinforced concrete（RC） arch bridge in connection with its overall seismic behavior and performance. Through a detailed three-dimensional finite element modeling and analysis of an actual existing deck-type RC arch bridge, some useful quantitative information have been derived that may serve for a better understanding of the seismic behavior of such arch bridges. A series of the nonlinear dynamic analyses has been carried out under the action of seven different time histories of ground motion scaled to the AASHTO 2012 response spectrum. The concept of demand to capacity ratios has been employed to provide an initial estimation of the seismic performance of the bridge members. As a consequence of the structural form, a particular type of irregularity is introduced due to variable heights of columns transferring the deck loads to the main arch. Hence, a particular attention has been paid to the internal force/moment distributions within the short, medium, and long columns as well as along the main arch. A study of the effects of the vertical component of ground motion has demonstrated the need for the inclusion of these effects in the analysis of such bridges.

Seismic Performance of Bridges with Different Pier Heights： Longitudinal Analysis of an Existing Bridge

This paper is dedicated to the study of the seismic performance of an existing RC （reinforced concrete） bridge localized in a region of moderate seismicity. The bridge has six spans and piers with very different heights, three of which are monolithically connected to the deck. To understand the roles of the different pier sizes in the overall behavior, several analyses were carried out in the longitudinal direction： （1） linear dynamic approach; （2） non-linear static approach; （3） non-linear dynamic approach. Linear dynamic analysis was made in order to design the bridge for the ultimate limit state considering the largest value of the ductility factor. No safety verification was made for the other loads. Using non-linear static analyses, sensitivity was performed to check the influence of reinforcement quantities of each pier on the overall behavior of the bridge under Lisbon seismic action. For the non-linear dynamic approach, a series of strong motion records compatible with the EC-8 spectrum for Lisbon area were generated. The very same combinations of reinforcement quantities were studied. Comparisons between static and dynamic non-linear analysis were made to confirm the validity of the first one in the case under analysis, where the period of vibration is quite high.

Effectiveness of external prestressing in enhancing the non-ductile hanger failure mechanism in reinforced concrete inverted T-beams

Recently,inverted T-beams have been used in reinforced concrete(RC)bridges to support transverse precast stringers.Inverted T-beams,contrary to practice with conventional beams,are loaded on the flanges upper surface.This loading configuration causes hanger failure due to the generation of vertical tensile stresses near the bottom of the web.The key purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of vertical external prestressing stainless-steel bars in mitigating non-ductile hanger failure in reinforced concrete inverted T-beams.An experimental study on six inverted-T beams,including two un-strengthened specimens,was carried out.The study showed that the value of the prestressing level had a considerable impact on the performance of hanger mechanism in relation to crack pattern,ultimate loads,cracking behavior,load-deflection,strains,and ductility.The experimental results indicated that the suggested method for strengthening inverted T-beams had efficacy in reducing the seriousness of the non-ductile hanger failure and resulted in a strength increase of up to 53% when compared to that of the un-strengthened specimen.Additionally,two analytical models for estimating the hanger capacity and the average crack width of the strengthened RC inverted T-beams were proposed.The models that were proposed exhibited a high degree of agreement with the experimental results.

Strengthening an in-service reinforcement concrete bridge with prestressed CFRP bars

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) bars were prestressed for the structural strengthening of 8 T-shaped rein-forced concrete (RC) beams of a 21-year-old bridge in China. The ultimate bearing capacity of the existing bridge after retrofit was discussed on the basis of concrete structures theory. The flexural strengths of RC beams strengthened with CFRP bars were controlled by the failure of concrete in compression and a prestressing method was applied in the retrofit. The field construction processes of strengthening with CFRP bars-including grouting cracks, cutting groove, grouting epoxy and embedding CFRP bars, surface treating, banding with the U-type CFRP sheets, releasing external prestressed steel tendons-were introduced in detail. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this strengthening method, field tests using vehicles as live load were applied before and after the retrofit. The test results of deflection and concrete strain of the T-shaped beams with and without strengthening show that the capacity of the repaired bridge, including the bending strength and stiffness, is enhanced. The measurements of crack width also indicate that this strengthening method can enhance the durability of bridges. Therefore, the proposed strengthening technology is feasible and effective.