MITIGATION OF NON-CONVERGENCE ISSUES IN NONLINEAR TIME HISTORY ANALYSIS OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES

Abstract eng:
Nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) is an essential component to quantifying the probability of failure for a structural system subjected to seismic loading. This is particularly important for bridge structures that must remain operational immediately following strong ground motions in order to facilitate emergency response. With complex constitutive models and high seismic demands, non-convergence in the NLTHA of bridges is frequently encountered. The non-convergence is generally thought to represent a physical failure of a bridge component, e.g., core concrete crushing, shear key failure, etc.; however, in some cases, nonconvergence can arise from numerical issues. These issues include the choice of damping model, time step size, constraint handling method, or other modeling decisions over which an analyst has control. The root causes of non-convergence due to numerical issues are outlined followed by recommendations for NLTHA "best practices" to mitigate such non-convergence issues. Results are presented for four reinforced concrete highway bridges in California; however, the results are generally applicable for a wide range of computational simulations in nonlinear structural dynamics.

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