• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Contrast to the conventional jointed bridge design, integral abutment bridges (IABs) offer some marked advantages like reduced maintenance and enhanced service life of the structure due to elimination of joints in the deck and monolithic construction practices. However, the force transfer mechanism during seismic and thermal movements is a topic of interest owing to rigid connection between superstructure and substructure (piers and abutments). This study attempts to model an existing IAB by including the abutment backfill interaction and soil-foundation interaction effects using Winkler foundation assumption to determine its seismic response. Keeping in view the significance of abutment behavior in an IAB, the probability of damage to the abutment is evaluated using fragility function. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) approach is used in this regard, wherein, nonlinear time history analyses are conducted on the numerical model using a selected suite of ground motions with increasing intensities until damage to abutment. It is concluded from the fragility analysis results that for a MCE level earthquake in the location of integral bridge, the probability of complete damage to the abutment is minimal.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.357-366
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• 2000

Longitudinal dynamic behaviors of a bridge system under seismic excitations are examined with various magnitudes of peak ground accelerations. The stiffness degradation due to abutment-soil interaction is considered in the bridge model which may play the major role upon the global dynamic characteristics. The idealized mechanical model for the whole ridge system is proposed by adopting the multiple-degree-of-freedom system which can consider components such as pounding phenomena friction at the movable supports rotational and translational motions of foundations and the nonlinear pier motions. The abutment-soil interaction is simulated by utilizing the one degree-of-freedom system with nonlinear spring. The stiffness degradation of the abutment-soil system is found to increase the relative displacement under moderate seismic excitations.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.667-674
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• 2011

This paper discusses the analysis method of prestressed concrete girder integral abutment bridges for a 75-year bridge life and the development of prediction models for abutment displacements under thermal loading due to annual temperature fluctuation and time-dependent loading. The developed nonlinear numerical modeling methodologies considered soil-structure interaction between supporting piles and surrounding soils and between abutment and backfills. Material nonlinearity was also considered to simulate differential rotation in construction joints between abutment and backwall. Based on the numerical modeling methodologies, a parametric study of 243 analysis cases, considering five parameters: (1) thermal expansion coefficient, (2) bridge length, (3) backfill height, (4) backfill stiffness, and (5) pile soil stiffness, was performed to established prediction models for abutment displacements over a bridge life. The parametric study results revealed that thermal expansion coefficient, bridge length, and pile-soil stiffness significantly influenced the abutment displacement. Bridge length parameter significantly influenced the abutment top displacement at the centroid of the superstructure, which is similar to the free expansion analysis results. Developed prediction model can be used for a preliminary design of integral abutment bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4A
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• pp.361-373
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• 2010

Bridges constructed without any expansion joint or bridge bearing are called integral abutment bridges. They integrate the substructure and the superstructure. Possible deformation of the superstructure, due to changes in temperature for example, is prevented by the bending of the piles placed at the lower part of the abutment. This study examines the behavior of integral abutment bridges through soil-pile interaction modeling method and proposes an appropriate modeling method. Also, it assesses the behavior characteristics of the superstructure and piles of integral abutment bridges through parametric study. Soil condition around the pile, abutment height, and pile length were selected as parameters to be analyzed. Structural analysis was conducted while considering the interactions of soil-pile and temperature change-earth pressure on the abutment. Comparative behavior analysis through soil-pile interaction modeling showed that elastic soil spring method is more appropriate in evaluating the behavior of integral abutment bridges. The parametric study showed the tendency that as the soil stiffness around the pile increases, the moment imposed on the superstructure increases, and the displacement of the piles decreases. In addition, it was observed that as the bridge height increases, the earth pressure on the abutment increases and that in turn affects the behavior of the superstructure and piles. Also, as the length of the pile increased, the integral bridge showed more flexible behavior.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.17-24
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• 2002

Dynamic behaviors of a bridge system with several simple spans are evaluated to examine the effects of nonlinear abutment motions upon the seismic responses of the bridge. The idealized mechanical model for the whole bridge system is developed by adopting the multi-degree-of-freedom system, which can consider various influential components. To compare the results, both linear and nonlinear abutment-backfill models are prepared. The linear system has the constant abutment stiffness, and the nonlinear system has the nonlinear stiffness considering the abutment stiffness degradation due to the abutment-soil interaction. From simulation results, the nonlinear abutment motion is found to have an important influence upon the global bridge motions. Maximum relative distances between adjacent vibration units are found to be larger than those found from the linear system. In particular, maximum relative distances at the location with the highest possibility of unseating failure are increased up to about 30% in the nonlinear system. The effects of nonlinear behavior of an abutment on the bridge seismic behaviors are also increased as the number of span increase. Therefore, it can be concluded that the abutment-soil interaction should be considered in the seismic analysis of the bridge system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.373-385
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• 2019

In this article, different frequently adopted modeling aspects of linear and nonlinear dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) are studied on a pile-supported integral abutment bridge structure using the open-source platform OpenSees (McKenna et al. 2000, Mazzoni et al. 2007, McKenna and Fenves 2008) for a 2D domain. Analyzed approaches are as follows: (i) free field input at the base of fixed base bridge; (ii) SSI input at the base of fixed base bridge; (iii) SSI model with two dimensional quadrilateral soil elements interacting with bridge and incident input motion propagating upwards at model bottom boundary (with and without considering the effect of abutment backfill response); (iv) simplified SSI model by idealizing the interaction between structural and soil elements through nonlinear springs (with and without considering the effect of abutment backfill response). Salient conclusions of this paper include: (i) free-field motions may differ significantly from those computed at the base of the bridge foundations, thus put a significant bias on the inertial component of SSI; (ii) conventional modeling of SSI through series of soil springs and dashpot system seems to stay on the safer side under dynamic conditions when one considers the seismic actions on the structure by considering a fully coupled SSI model; (iii) consideration of abutment-backfill in the SSI model positively affects the general response of the bridge, as a result of large passive resistance that may develop behind the abutments.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.347-354
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• 2000

The seismic behaviors of a bridge system with several simple spans are examined to see the effects of the longitudinal stiffness degradation due to abutment-soil interaction. The abutment-backfill system is modeled as one degree-of-freedom-system with nonlinear spring and linear damper. various soil-conditions surrounding the abutment such as loose sand, medium dense sand, and dense sand are considered in the bridge seismic analysis. The idealized mechanical model for the whole bridge system is modeled by adopting the multiple-degree-of-freedom system, which can consider components such as pounding phenomena, friction at the movable supports, rotational and translational motions of foundations, and the nonlinear pier motions. The stiffness of the abutment is found to be rapidly reduced at the beginning of the earthquakes, and to be converged to constant values shortly after the displacement approaches to the Predefined critical values. It is observed that the maximum relative distanced an maximum relative displacements are generally Increased as the relative density of a soil decreases As the peak ground acceleration increases, the response ratio of the case considering stiffness degradation to the case considering constant stiffness decreases.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.759-767
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• 2003

This paper presents the simplified but more rational analysis method for the prediction of additional internal forces induced in integral abutment bridges. These internal forces depend upon the degree of restraint provided tc the deck by the backfill soil adjacent to the abutments and piles. In addition, effect of the relative flexural stiffness ratio among pile foundations, abutment, and superstructure on the structural behavior is also an important factor. The first part of the paper develops the stiffness matrices, written in terms of the soil stiffness, for the lateral and rotational restraints provided by the backfill soil adjacent to the abutment. The finite difference analysis is conducted and it is confirmed that the results are agreed well with the predictions obtained by the proposed method. The simplified spring model is used in the parametric study on the behavior of simple span and multi-span continuous integral abutment PSC beam bridges in which the abutment height and the flexural rigidity of piles are varied. These results are compared with those obtained by loading Rankine passive earth pressure according to the conventional method. From the results of parametric study, it was shown that the abutment height, the relative flexural rigidity of superstructure and piles, and the earth pressure induced by temperature change greatly affect the overall structural response of the bridge system. It may be possible to obtain more rational and economical designs for integral abutment bridges by the proposed method.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.301-310
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• 2016

There are differences in seismic behavior between non-skewed bridges and skewed bridges due to in-plane rotations caused by pounding between the skewed deck and its abutments during strong earthquake. Many advances have been made in developing design codes and guidelines for dynamic analyses of non-skewed bridges. However, there remain significant uncertainties with regard to the structural response of skewed bridges caused by unusual seismic response characteristics. The purpose of this study is performing non-linear time history analysis of the bridges using abutment-soil interaction model considering pounding between the skewed deck and its abutments, and analyzing global seismic behavior characteristics of the skewed bridges to assess the possibility of unseating. Refined bridge model with abutment back fill, shear key and elastomeric bearing was developed using non-linear spring element. In order to evaluate the amplification of longitudinal and transverse displacement response, non-linear time history analysis was performed for single span bridges. Far-fault and near-fault ground motions were used as input ground motions. According to each parameter, seismic behavior of skewed bridges was evaluated.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.412-419
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• 2002

This paper presents a parametric study on the behavior of integral abutment PSC beam bridge. An integral abutment bridge is a simple span or multiple span continuous deck type bridge having the deck integral with the abutment wall. The rational structural model and design load combinations accounting for each construction stage are proposed. It can be used for defining the effect of earth pressure and temperature change in the design process including for determining maximum flexural responses. The bending moment at each response location due to the design load combination is investigated according to the change of flexural rigidity of piles and abutment height. The flexural responses of proposed model are computed for the cases of applying the Rankine passive earth pressure and the earth pressure based on the soil-structure interaction respectively, and the results are discussed.