Fragility Analyses of Bridge Structures Using the Logarithmic Piecewise Function-Based Probabilistic Seismic Demand Model

Seismic fragility analysis is an efficient method to evaluate the structural failure probability during earthquake events. Among the existing fragility analysis methods, the probabilistic seismic demand model (PSDM) and the joint probabilistic seismic demand model (JPSDM) are generally used to compute the component and system fragility, respectively. However, the statistical significance behind the parameters related to the current PSDM and JPSDM are not comparable. Aside from that, when calculating the system fragility, the Monte Carlo sampling (MCS) method is time-consuming. To solve the two flaws, in this paper, the logarithm piecewise functions were used to generate the PSDM and the JPSDM, and the MCS was replaced by the univariate conditioning approximation (UCA) method. The concepts and application procedures of the proposed fragility analysis methods were elaborated first. Then, the UCA method was illustrated in detail. Finally, fragility curves of a steel arch truss case study bridge were generated by the proposed method. The research results indicate the following: (1) the proposed methods unify the data sources and statistical significance of the parameters used in the PSDM and the JPSDM; (2) the logarithmic piecewise function-based PSDM sensitively reflects the changing trend of the component’s demand with the fluctuation of the seismic intensity measure; (3) under transverse seismic waves, major injuries happen on the side bearings of the bridge, while slight damage may occur on each pier, and as the seismic intensity measure increases, the side bearings are more likely to be damaged; (4) for the severe damage and the absolute damage of the studied bridge, the system fragility curves are closer to the upper failure bounds; and (5) compared with the MSC method, the accuracy of the UCA method can be guaranteed with less calculation time.

Seismic Fragility Analysis of Multispan Reinforced Concrete Bridges Using Mainshock-Aftershock Sequences

Although the knowledge and technology of performance-based earthquake engineering have rapidly advanced in the past several decades, current seismic design codes simply ignore the effect of aftershocks on the performance of structures. Thus, the present paper investigated the effect of aftershocks on seismic responses of multispan reinforced concrete (RC) bridges using the fragility-based numerical approach. For that purpose, a continuous girder RC bridge class containing 8 bridges was selected based on the statistical analysis of the existing RC bridges in China. 75 recorded mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences from 10 well-known earthquakes were selected in this study. In order to account for the uncertainty of modeling parameters, uniform design method was applied as the sampling method for generating the samples for fragility analysis. Fragility curves were then developed using nonlinear time-history analysis in terms of the peak curvature of pier column and displacement of bearings. Finally, the system fragility curves were derived by implementing Monte Carlo simulation on multinormal distribution of two components. From the results of this investigation, it was found that, for the RC continuous bridges, the influence of aftershocks can be harmful to both bridge components and system, which increases both the component fragility of the displacement of bearings and seismic curvature of pier sections and system fragility.