Probabilistic seismic response and reliability assessment of isolated bridges

Bridge seismic isolation strategy is based on the reduction of shear forces transmitted from the superstructure to the piers by two means: shifting natural period and earthquake input energy reduction by dissipation concentrated in protection devices. In this paper, a stochastic analysis of a simple isolated bridge model for different bridge and device parameters is conducted to assess the efficiency of this seismic protection strategy. To achieve this aim, a simple nonlinear softening constitutive law is adopted to model a wide range of isolation devices, characterized by only three essential mechanical parameters. As a consequence of the random nature of seismic motion, a probabilistic analysis is carried out and the time modulated Kanai-Tajimi stochastic process is adopted to represent the seismic action. The response covariance in the state space is obtained by solving the Lyapunov equation for a stochastic linearized system. After a sensitivity analysis, the failure probability referred to extreme displacement and the mean value of dissipated energy are assessed by using the introduced stochastic indices of seismic bridge protection efficiency. A parametric analysis for protective devices with different mechanical parameters is developed for a proper selection of parameters of isolation devices under different situations.     

Analytical exploration of γ-function explicit method for pseudodynamic testing of nonlinear systems

It has been well studied that the γ-function explicit method can be effective in providing favorable numerical dissipation for linear elastic systems. However, its performance for nonlinear systems is unclear due to a lack of analytical evaluation techniques. Thus, a novel technique is proposed herein to evaluate its efficiency for application to nonlinear systems by introducing two parameters to describe the stiffness change. As a result, the numerical properties and error propagation characteristics of the γ-function explicit method for the pseudodynamic testing of a nonlinear system are analytically assessed. It is found that the upper stability limit decreases as the step degree of nonlinearity increases; and it increases as the current degree of nonlinearity increases. It is also shown that this integration method provides favorable numerical dissipation not only for linear elastic systems but also for nonlinear systems. Furthermore, error propagation analysis reveals that the numerical dissipation can effectively suppress the severe error propagation of high frequency modes while the low frequency responses are almost unaffected for both linear elastic and nonlinear systems.     

A study on the seismic behavior of a retrofitted building based on nonlinear static and dynamic analyses

This study describes the seismic performance of an existing five storey reinforced concrete building which represents the typical properties of low-rise non-ductile buildings in Turkey. The effectiveness of shear walls and the steel bracings in retrofitting the building was examined through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. By using the nonlinear static analysis, retrofitted buildings seismic performances under lateral seismic load were compared with each other. Moreover, the performance points and response levels of the existing and retrofitting cases were determined by way of the capacity-spectrum method described in ATC-40 (1996). For the nonlinear dynamic analysis the records were selected torepresent wide ranges of duration and frequency content. Considering the change in the stiffness and the energy dissipation capacities, the performance of the existing and retrofitted buildings were evaluated in terms of story drifts and damage states. It was found that each earthquake record exhibited its own peculiarities, dictated by frequency content, duration, sequence of peaks and their amplitude. The seismic performance of retrofitted buildings resulted in lower displacements and higher energy dissipation capacity depending mainly on the properties of the ground motions and the retrofitting strategies. Moreover, severe structural damage (irreparable or collapse) was observed for the existing building. However, buildings with retrofit alternatives exhibited lower damage levels changing from no damage to irreparable damage states.     

Variation of earthquake ground motionwith depth

Introduction The 21st century is the time for the exploitation and utilization of underground spaces. It is astrategic way to defeat the severe challenge that human are now confronting with, such as the lackof land, contamination of environment, traffic jam, waste of sources, and so on. The exploitationand utilization of underground space has become a global tendency, and a significant sign inevaluating the speed of modernization of cities. Facing the challenge, it is significantly necess…     

Nonlinear free thermal convection in a spherical shell:A variable viscosity model

Introduction The velocity field of surface plate motion can be split into a poloidal and a toroidal parts.At the Earth′s surface,the toroidal component is manifested by the existence of transform faults,and the poloidal component by the presence of convergence and divergence,i.e.spreading and subduc-tion zones.They have coupled each other and completely depicted the characteristics of plate tec-tonic motions.The mechanism of poloidal field has been studied fairly clearly which is related to …     

Parametric study on performance of bridge retrofitted by unseating prevention devices

1 Introduction Structural retro?t techniques (Roberts, 2005), such as restrainers, concrete shear keys, steel jackets, CFRPshells, base isolators, or dampers have been widely studied and implemented in actual structures based on the experiences learned from past earthquakes. In the Chi-Chi earthquake (EERI, 2001), the damage to simply-supported PCI girder bridges provided a different view from which to examine the function of a rubber bearing system for simply- supported bridges (NCREE,…     

Upper mantle convection beneath northwest China and its adjacent region driven by density anomaly

Introduction The northwest of China includes Tarim, Junggar and Qaidam basins, and Kunlun, Tianshan, Altun and Qilian mountains, as well as the north part of the Tibetan Plateau. For a long time, the study of lithosphere structures and dynamics in this area has been a popular topic in geoscience, and has yielded many results. For example, TANG (1994) and LI et al (1998) suppose that the tectonic structure of Tarim Basin is various with geological periods, which changes many times betwee…     

Wavelet filter analysis of splitting and coupling of seismic normal modes below 1.5 mHz with superconducting gravimeter records after the December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake

New generation superconducting gravimeters (SGs), which have been demonstrated to be better than the best seismometers STS-1 at frequencies below 1 mHz, can be accepted as the quietest vertical seismometers for observation of long-period earth free oscillations. Wavelet filtering with narrow band-pass frequency response as shown in this paper is very helpful in removing at- mospheric pressure effects from on gravity records in long-period seismic mode frequency bands. The processing of high quality SG records after the great Sumatra earthquake (Dec. 26, 2004) with wavelet filtering leads to clear observations of all coupled toroidal modes below 1.5 mHz except these for 0T5, 0T7 and 1T1; moreover 1T2 and 1T3 are, for the first time, unambiguously revealed in the vertical components of the free oscillations. The three well-resolved splitting singlets of overtones 2S1 are observed from a single SG record for the first time.     

基于现行抗震规范的胡聿贤模型参数研究

回顾了地震地面加速度随机过程模型,根据随机振动理论采用迭代方法求解出与我国现行《建筑抗震设计规范》(GB50011-2001)设计反应谱相对应的功率谱密度函数,选用胡聿贤功率谱密度函数拟合上述功率谱密度函数,运用非线性拟合技术给出了与规范对应的胡聿贤功率谱参数,可供这种模型作为地震地面运动输入时选用。     

印度洋9.0级大地震激发的地球球型振荡和环型振荡

综合分析了中国数字地震台网（CDSN）改造后的5个长周期地震仪台站观测的3天的VHZ、VHE和VHN波形资料,利用功率谱密度估计方法,在没有对资料进行去固体潮处理的情况下,准确获得了2004年12月26日印度洋地震激发的0S3~0S78的基频球型振荡和部分谐频球型振荡和0T3~0T67的基频环型振荡,并与地球初步参考模型（PREM）的理论自由振荡周期进行了对比,发现实测振荡周期与PREM预测的振荡周期符合的很好.频率与PREM模型略微不一致的球型或环型振荡可以解释为地球介质的横向不均匀性和各向异性所致.因此地球自由振荡信息可用于揭示地球的三维不均匀结构信息或各向异性信息,并可能对区分地幔对流模式有所帮助.