Fragility Functions of Different Bridge Types Subject to Seismic Shaking and Lateral Spreading

Abstract eng:
Bridges, as the most critical component in transportation system, have suffered various levels of damages due to strong shaking or liquefaction-induced spreading in past earthquakes. This paper evaluates seismic vulnerability of six classes of typical bridges in California, whose failure mechanisms and damage resistant capability are different due to varying structural configurations, namely superstructure type, connection, continuity at support and foundation type etc. Nonlinear time history analyses are conducted on bridge models subjected to a suite of 250 recorded earthquake motions with increasing intensity. A static pushover procedure is also implemented to evaluate the vulnerability of the bridges when subjected to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. Fragility functions for each class of bridges are derived and compared for both seismic shaking (based on time history analyses) and lateral spreading (based on equivalent static procedure) for different performance states. The study finds that the fragility functions due to either ground shaking or lateral spreading show significant correlation with the structural characterizations, but differences emerge for ground shaking and lateral spreading conditions.

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