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.