Performance-based concept on seismic evaluation of existing bridges

• Published in: Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration 2009-03, Vol.8 (1), p.127-135
• Main Authors: Sung, Yu-Chi, Liao, Wen-I., Yen, W. Phillip
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Bridges; Civil Engineering; Control; Dynamical Systems; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earthquakes; Evaluation; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Pushover分析; Seismic activity; Seismic analysis; Seismic engineering; Seismic response; Studies; Survival; Vibration; 地震评估; 峰值加速度; 抗震评估; 桥梁抗震; 结构性能; 非线性时程分析; 非线性行为
• ISSN: 1671-3664; 1993-503X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11803-009-8151-3

Conventional seismic evaluation of existing bridges explores the ability of a bridge to survive under significant earthquake excitations. This approach has several major drawbacks, such as only a single structural performance of near collapse is considered, and the simplified approach of adopting strength-based concept to indirectly estimate the nonlinear behavior of a structure lacks accuracy. As a result, performance-based concepts that include a wider variety of structural performance states of a given bridge excited by different levels of earthquake intensity is needed by the engineering community. This paper introduces an improved process for the seismic evaluation of existing bridges. The relationship between the overall structural performance and earthquakes with varying levels of peak ground acceleration （PGA） can successfully be linked. A universal perspective on the seismic evaluation of bridges over their entire life-cycle can be easily obtained to investigate multiple performance objectives. The accuracy of the proposed method, based on pushover analysis, is proven in a case study that compares the results from the proposed procedure with additional nonlinear time history analyses.