Seismic performance of an existing bridge with scoured caisson foundation

This paper presents in-situ seismic performance tests of a bridge before its demolition due to accumulated scouring problem. The tests were conducted on three single columns and one caisson-type foundation. The three single columns were 1.8 m in diameter,reinforced by 30-D32 longitudinal reinforcements and laterally hooped by D16 reinforcements with spacing of 20 cm. The column height is 9.54 m,10.59 m and 10.37 m for Column P2,P3,and P4,respectively. Column P2 had no exposed foundation and was subjected to pseudo-dynamic tests with peak ground acceleration of 0.32 g first,followed by one cyclic loading test. Column P3 was the benchmark specimen with exposed length of 1.2 m on its foundation. The exposed length for Column P4 was excavated to 4 m,approximately 1/3 of the foundation length,to study the effect of the scouring problem to the column performance. Both Column P3 and Column P4 were subjected to cyclic loading tests. Based on the test results,due to the large dimension of the caisson foundation and the well graded gravel soil type that provided large lateral resistance,the seismic performance among the three columns had only minor differences. Lateral push tests were also conducted on the caisson foundation at Column P5. The caisson was 12 m long and had circular cross-sections whose diameters were 5 m in the upper portion and 4 m in the lower portion. An analytical model to simulate the test results was developed in the OpenSees platform. The analytical model comprised nonlinear flexural elements as well as nonlinear soil springs. The analytical results closely followed the experimental test results. A parametric study to predict the behavior of the bridge column with different ground motions and different levels of scouring on the foundation are also discussed.     

Seismic performance of an existing bridge with scoured caisson foundation

A three-dimensional rigid body on the shape of a parallelepiped is modelled in order to rock on a side or a vertex of the base,in order to evaluate the seismic response of rigid blocks lying on a horizontal support.The center of mass of the body is considered as eccentric with respect to its geometric center.As seismic input,three Italian recorded accelerograms,with different spectral content,are used.The study is mainly conducted to highlight the differences between the seismic response of 2D and 3D models of rigid blocks,with the aim to understand if,in some cases,the use of the 3D model of rigid block is required to obtain safer results.In fact,the outcomes show that in some ranges of the geometrical and mechanical parameters that characterize the excitation and the body,a two-dimensional model,which is not able to consider the 3D rocking on a vertex,can provide unsafe results.In particular,it is found that the overturning process of the three-dimensional block can occur under excitations which are lower than those which overturn a corresponding two-dimensional block.     

Composed analytical models for seismic assessment of reinforced concrete bridge columns

This paper presents general composed analytical models to predict the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns. The analytical models were developed in OpenSees to represent the common hysteretic behavior of RC bridge columns. The proposed composed models can accommodate flexure failure, flexure‐shear failure, and pure shear failure, which are observed in existing RC bridge piers. The accuracy of the models was verified using data from the static cyclic‐loading experiments of 16 single columns and one multi‐column bent and dynamical experiment from two pseudo‐dynamic tests. The results showed that the analytical models could simulate the nonlinear behavior until the post‐failure behavior, including the strength degradation, the buckling of the reinforcement, and the pinching effect. Therefore, a global view of the behavior of reinforcement concrete is prescribed as simply as possible from the academic perspective, and these models are expected to provide sufficient accuracy when applied in engineering practice. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.