Seismic behaviour of girder bridges for horizontally propagating waves

The results obtained from a parametric study on the influence of horizontally propagating waves for the earthquake behaviour of continuous girder bridges are presented. The investigation is performed for floating-supported bridges excited by an earthquake acting in their vertical planes. The shallow foundations are assumed to be supported on the surface of either a visco-elastic halfspace or a visco-elastic layer resting on an elastic halfspace. Steady-state response for harmonic excitation and transient response for an artificial time history are investigated. Approximate equations describing the influence of horizontally propagating waves are presented and criteria are derived indicating when an increase of the internal forces and of the relative motion between the girder and the abutments can be expected.