Numerical Analysis of Seismic Response of Natural Stone Arch Bridges. Field Observations and a Case Study

Abstract eng:
Prompted by interest in heritage preservation and the search of optimized intervention/rehabilitation using advanced methodologies and practices, the seismic vulnerability of natural stone structures and in particular of arch bridges has been the theme of recent comprehensive studies which, based on sophisticated numerical modeling and computational schemes, have attempted to understand (a) their dynamic response during a large earthquake that pushes the structure beyond its “pseudo-elastic” limit and (b) their inherent structural capacity that is expected to be reduced due to mortar ageing and degradation Within the most recent seismic studies specific natural stone arch bridges exhibiting a wide range of structural features and sizes have been studied analytically/numerically using scaled earthquake signals representative of the regional seismic families and their spectral content. These highly non-linear analyses, which were based on exact modeling representation of the structures themselves as well as sophisticated and explicit mortar-stone interfaces and stonestone contact and interaction relations, explored the response to scaled, multi-dimensional earthquakes that pushed these structures towards collapse in an effort to identify weak links and most vulnerable aspects of their design. These “extreme” seismic analyses were based on three-dimensional dynamic finite element formulation using the LS-DYNA and TrueGrid software the performance of which has been extensively tested and benchmarked against highly non-linear structural behavior of primarily reinforced concrete structures, as well as contact and impact. The variation in structural response and vulnerability stemming from different earthquake characteristics, i.e. near-field and far-field earthquakes, has also been studied and will be presented. A specific natural stone arch bridge, identified to have been damaged by a recent earthquake, was used as the field study and the benchmarking basis for the complex numerical simulation formulation. Results of the simulation study aimed to identify the most probable cause of the earthquake damage between earthquake intensity, duration and spectral content on one hand and the specific structural and foundation characteristics of the structure on the other will be presented.

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