Methodology and Application of Safety Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Girder Bridges during Earthquakes

The actual earthquake resistance performance and the seismic damage state of bridges during future earthquakes are important issues that need to be resolved. Using an expressway reinforced concrete (RC) girder bridge in a high seismic intensity area of China as the research object, the damage correlation between different structural components of the bridge is analyzed, and the key components that determine the structural safety state of the bridge are determined. Then, the safety evaluation indexes of the bridge pier and bearing are researched, and a two-stage seismic safety evaluation methodology for RC girder bridges is proposed. The first stage is a rapid and general evaluation using empirical statistical methods, and the second stage is a precise evaluation obtained by calculating the damage index of the components. Subsequently, the seismic damage prediction matrix is presented. Considering the modification of the bridge span number, service life, and skew angle, a seismic safety evaluation from a typical single bridge to a group of bridges of the same type is implemented. Finally, an actual expressway bridge in China is presented as a numerical example to illustrate the application of the method. The research results show that damage to the key components, including bearings, piers, and abutments, is the deciding factor of the bridge damage state. The seismic damage states of piers and bearings can be conveniently assessed according to the pier top displacement angle and bearing shear deformation during earthquakes. According to the suggested standard of RC girder bridge seismic damage, the seismic safety evaluation of the whole bridge structure can be obtained using the seismic safety evaluation of individual key components of the bridge structure. According to the evaluation results of individual bridges and considering the modification of influencing factors, an earthquake performance evaluation of a group of bridges of the same type can be obtained. The two-stage seismic safety evaluation methodology proposed in this study is effective and efficient.

Probabilistic Seismic Analysis of the Deep Sliding Stability of a Concrete Gravity Dam-Foundation System

There are various uncertainties in the design, construction, and operation of dams. These uncertainties have an important impact on the seismic response and seismic safety evaluation of concrete dams. In this research, a typical nonoverflow monolith of a concrete gravity dam is selected as a case study for the sliding stability analysis. Based on the analysis and demonstration of parameter sensitivity of friction coefficients and cohesion and their influence on the deep antisliding stability of the dam-foundation system, the probabilistic seismic analysis of a gravity dam-foundation system is carried out through Monte Carlo analysis with a large sample number. Damage levels are defined based on the sliding instability failure mode along with the corresponding threshold values of the damage index. Thus, seismic fragility analysis is investigated, and seismic fragility curves are obtained for the vulnerability assessment under earthquake hazards. The overall seismic stability of the gravity dam is evaluated, which provides the basis for the seismic safety evaluation in the probabilistic framework.

A Multilevel Approach for the Cultural Heritage Vulnerability and Strengthening: Application to the Melfi Castle

This study outlines a procedure for the seismic safety evaluation of historical buildings for engineers and architects that commonly work on buildings belonging to cultural and architectural heritage. The procedure is characterized by two interrelated phases: (a) building knowledge acquisition and (b) structural behavior analysis and safety assessment. The seismic safety evaluation strongly depends on the first phase, whose data can be obtained according to a multi-disciplinary approach based on five steps: (1) critical-historical analysis; (2) photographic documentation and geometrical survey; (3) structural identification and material survey; (4) foundation and soil survey; and (5) cracking pattern and structural integrity analysis. The proposed method was applied to the evaluation of the seismic safety of the Castle of Melfi (PZ, Italy). Comprehensive and multi-disciplinary knowledge of this monument greatly facilitated an accurate seismic analysis of this monument, which was conducted both at a local and global level using a linear kinematic analysis and non-linear static (pushover) analysis, respectively.

EFFECT OF SITE AMPLIFICATION ON SEISMIC SAFETY EVALUATION OF FLYOVER PIER

Bangladesh is a developing country in which a lot of multi-span simply/continuous supported flyovers are being constructed in its major cities. Being situated in a seismically active region, seismic safety evaluation of flyovers is essential for seismic risk reduction. Effects of site amplification on seismic safety evaluation of flyover piers are the main concern of this study. In this regard, failure mode, lateral strength and displacement ductility of piers of a typical multi-span simply supported flyover have been evaluated by Japan Road Association (JRA) recommended guidelines, with and without considering site amplification. Ultimate flexural strengths of piers have been computed using the pushover analysis results. Shear capacity of piers have been calculated using the guidelines of JRA. Lateral strengths have been determined depending on the failure modes of the piers. Displacement ductility of piers has been computed using yield and ultimate displacements of the piers obtained from the pushover analysis results. Selected earthquake time history is used in seismic safety evaluation of the flyover piers. Finally, the ductility design method is used to conduct the seismic safety evaluation of the piers with and without considering site amplification. From the numerical results, it has been revealed that the effects of site amplification on seismic safety evaluation of bridge structures should be carefully taken into account.

Dynamic responses of concrete-faced rockfill dam due to different seismic motion input methods

The concrete-faced rockfill dam valley foundation was considered as an open energy system and a reasonable non-uniform seismic motion input method was applied to the dynamic analysis of a concrete-faced rockfill dam based on the generalized plastic model. First, the corresponding program was validated by means of the scattering question of an idealized semicircle valley. Subsequently, the seismic elasto-plastic finite element analyses were performed to compare and investigate the performances of a concrete-faced rockfill dam under different seismic motion input methods. The results show that the dynamic responses of the concrete-faced rockfill dam are decreased by 10%–30% approximately with the use of non-uniform seismic motion input method. As a result, the traditional uniform seismic motion input method would overestimate the responses of the dam. From the perspective of seismic safety evaluation, the overestimations would disturb the reasonable assessment of the aseismic capacity of the dam. Moreover, the slope stability analysis results might be conservative and unreasonable due to overestimating the accelerations during the earthquake.