Effect of travelling waves on stochastic seismic response and dynamic reliability of a long-span bridge on soft soil

It is generally known that the variability of earthquake ground motion is mainly in time and space. To investigate the impact of this variability on the seismic performance of a long-span flexible structure, we discuss the seismic dynamic responses of a real bridge subjected to stochastic seismic ground motion. We incorporate the effect of wave passage by means of the method of probability density evolution based on dynamic time-history analysis from the perspective of stochastic dynamics. First, we introduce the theory of probability density evolution and a category of stochastic seismic model. We then conduct a series of deterministic seismic dynamic analyses of the bridge to establish the probability density equation. Eventually, we obtain the probability information at the level of the probability density function of the seismic response by solving the probability-density evolution equation. The results show that the impact of travelling waves on a long-span structure is related to the characteristics of the earthquake ground motion and the structure, and that travelling waves increase the variability of the seismic response.