Experimental Study of Highway Bridges with Pounding Effects Subject Bi-Directional Earthquake Excitations

Abstract eng:
This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the pounding effects of highway bridges under bi-directional earthquake excitations. A 1:20 scaled elevated bridge model with two segments is designed and manufactured. The superstructures of the bridge model are supported by using linear rubber bearings, and the gap size between the neighbouring segments is set to be 3.5mm according to the geometric scaling. The pounding effects of the highway bridges under bi-directional ground motions are investigated by shake table tests. A series of tests are carried out for the bridge model with large gap size under two bi-directional ground motions, including Taft and Kobe earthquake records. Then, the similar tests of the bridge model with small gap size are also conducted to investigate the pounding effects between the adjacent superstructures. The experimental results show that the bi-directional pounding between the adjacent segments of the highway bridges will significantly increase the acceleration responses of the structures. The highway bridges in earthquake area should be properly designed to lighten the pounding damage of the structures.

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