Seismic Mitigation of Curved Continuous Girder Bridge Considering Collision Effect

Abstract

Due to structural irregularity, curved bridgesaremore likely to cause non-uniform collisions and unseating between adjacent components when subjected to earthquakes. Based on the analysis of the collision response of curved bridges duringearthquakes, and according to the seismic characteristics of curved bridges, research was carried out on pounding mitigation and unseating prevention measures. A curved bridge with double column piers was taken as an engineering example, and a finite element model of curved bridges thatcould consider the non-uniform contact collision between adjacent components was built with ABAQUS software. Viscoelastic dampers, viscous dampers, and a lead rubber bearing were selected as the damping devices, and a steel wire rope-rubber mat was used as the pounding mitigation device to form the combinatorial seismic mitigation system. Based on the principle of energy dissipation combined with constraints, three kinds of combined seismic mitigation case were determined; a seismic response analysis was then performed. The results indicated that the three kinds of combined seismic case were effective atreducing the response topounding force, stress, damage, girder torsion and displacement, and achieved the goals of seismic mitigation and unseating prevention.