A New Method on Resolving the Rotation in the Plane of Skew Bridges

The rotation of skew bridges in the plane is a common phenomenon in engineering. Traditional measure is to setup pins or limiting displacement with lateral bearings, but the result is not satisfactory. In order to solve this problem, the reason for the rotation in the plane is found by philosophy analysis and an idea regarding the application of slantleg frame skew bridges without abutment is brought forward in this paper. Theory and engineering practices indicate that slant-leg rigid frame bridges without abutment can restrain the rotation of skew bridges in the plane to the utmost extent because of its structural characteristics and can fundamentally solve the tough defect of skew bridges.

Seismic response of skewed RC box-girder bridges

It is critical to ensure the functionality of highway bridges after earthquakes to provide access to important facilities. Since the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, there has been a better understanding of the seismic performance of bridges. Nonetheless, there are no detailed guidelines addressing the performance of skewed highway bridges. Several parameters affect the response of skewed highway bridges under both service and seismic loads which makes their behavior complex. Therefore, there is a need for more research to study the effect of skew angle and other related factors on the performance of highway bridges. This paper examines the seismic performance of a three-span continuous concrete box girder bridge with skew angles from 0 to 60 degrees, analytically. Finite element （FE） and simplified beam-stick （BS） models of the bridge were developed using SAP2000. Different types of analysis were considered on both models such as： nonlinear static pushover, and linear and nonlinear time history analyses. A comparison was conducted between FE and BS, different skew angles, abutment support conditions, and time history and pushover analysis. It is shown that the BS model has the capability to capture the coupling due to skew and the significant modes for moderate skew angles. Boundary conditions and pushover load profile are determined to have a major effect on pushover analysis. Pushover analysis may be used to predict the maximum deformation and hinge formation adequately.

Performance-based seismic assessment of skewed bridges with and without considering soil-foundation interaction effects for various site classes

The seismic behavior of skewed bridges has not been well studied compared to straight bridges. Skewed bridges have shown extensive damage, especially due to deck rotation, shear keys failure, abutment unseating and column- bent drift. This research, therefore, aims to study the behavior of skewed and straight highway overpass bridges both with and without taking into account the effects of Soil-Structure Interaction （SSI） due to near-fault ground motions. Due to several sources of uncertainty associated with the ground motions, soil and structure, a probabilistic approach is needed. Thus, a probabilistic methodology similar to the one developed by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center （PEER） has been utilized to assess the probability of damage due to various levels of shaking using appropriate intensity measures with minimum dispersions. The probabilistic analyses were performed for various bridge configurations and site conditions, including sand ranging from loose to dense and clay ranging from soft to stiff, in order to evaluate the effects. The results proved a considerable susceptibility of skewed bridges to deck rotation and shear keys displacement. It was also found that SSI had a decreasing effect on the damage probability for various demands compared to the fixed-base model without including SSI. However, deck rotation for all types of the soil and also abutment unseating for very loose sand and soft clay showed an increase in damage probability compared to the fixed-base model. The damage probability for various demands has also been found to decrease with an increase of soil strength for both sandy and clayey sites. With respect to the variations in the skew angle, an increase in skew angle has had an increasing effect on the amplitude of the seismic response for various demands. Deck rotation has been very sensitive to the increase in the skew angle; therefore, as the skew angle increased, the deck rotation responded accordingly. Furthermore, abutment unseating showed an increasing trend due to an increase in skew angle for both fixed-base and SSI models.

The effect of different intensity measures and earthquake directions on the seismic assessment of skewed highway bridges

In this study the probable seismic behavior of skewed bridges with continuous decks under earthquake excitations from different directions is investigated. A 45° skewed bridge is studied. A suite of 20 records is used to perform an Incremental Dynamic Analysis （IDA） for fragility curves. Four different earthquake directions have been considered： -45°, 0°, 22.5, 45°. A sensitivity analysis on different spectral intensity measures is presented; efficiency and practicality of different intensity measures have been studied. The fragility curves obtained indicate that the critical direction for skewed bridges is the skew direction as well as the longitudinal direction. The study shows the importance of finding the most critical earthquake in understanding and predicting the behavior of skewed bridges.

Development of the applicability of simplified Henry’s method for skewed multicell box-girder bridges under traffic loading conditions

Concrete precast multicell box-girder(MCB) bridges combine aesthetics with torsional stiffness perfectly.Previous analytical studies indicate that currently available specifications are unable to consider the effect of the twisting moment(torsional moment) on bridge actions.In straight bridges the effect of torsion is negligible and the transverse reinforced design is governed by other requirements.However,in the case of skewed bridges the effect of the twisting moment should be considered.Therefore,an in-depth study was performed on 90 concrete MCB bridges with skew angles ranging from 0° to 60°.For each girder the bridge actions were determined under the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials(AASHTO) live load conditions.The analytical results show that torsional stiffness and live load positions greatly affected the bridges' responses.In addition,based on a statistical analysis of the obtained results,several skew correction factors are proposed to improve the precision of the simplified Henry's method,which is widely used by bridge engineers to predict bridge actions.The relationship between the bending moment and secondary moments was also investigated and it was concluded that all secondary actions increase with an increase in skewness.