• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.173-190
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• 2011

As a practical and effective seismic resisting technology, the base isolation system has seen extensive applications in buildings and bridges. However, a few problems associated with conventional lead-rubber bearings have been identified after historical strong earthquakes, e.g., excessive permanent deformations of bearings and potential unseating of bridge decks. Recently the applications of shape memory alloys (SMA) have received growing interest in the area of seismic response mitigation. As a result, a variety of SMA-based base isolators have been developed. These novel isolators often lead to minimal permanent deformations due to the self-centering feature of SMA materials. However, a rational design approach is still missing because of the fact that conventional design method cannot be directly applied to these novel devices. In light of this limitation, a displacement-based design approach for highway bridges with SMA isolators is proposed in this paper. Nonlinear response spectra, derived from typical hysteretic models for SMA, are employed in the design procedure. SMA isolators and bridge piers are designed according to the prescribed performance objectives. A prototype reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridge is designed using the proposed design approach. Nonlinear dynamic analyses for different seismic intensity levels are carried out using a computer program called "OpenSees". The efficacy of the displacement-based design approach is validated by numerical simulations. Results indicate that a properly designed RC highway bridge with novel SMA isolators may achieve minor damage and minimal residual deformations under frequent and rare earthquakes. Nonlinear static analysis is also carried out to investigate the failure mechanism and the self-centering ability of the designed highway bridge.