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Title |
Variation of Seismic Behavior of Continuous Skew Plate Girder Bridges According to the Arrangement of Bearings
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Abstract |
The capacity of bearings installed at abutments and piers for continuous bridges is usually determined by the magnitude of the maximum vertical reaction at each support and the capacity of bearings placed at piers is higher than that at abutments. In this study, the possibility of the improved seismic performance of base-isolated continuous skew bridges was investigated by analysing the variation of the seismic behavior of them according to three arrangements of bearings. Based on the conventional arrangement of bearings(Case A), three arrangements of bearings such as Case A, Case B and Case C were selected considering the variation of the horizontal stiffness of the lead rubber bearing(LRB) installed at the pier. The seismic behavior of the total 36 skew bridges was investigated by conducting the response spectrum analysis using the hybrid response spectrum considered the effect of LRB’s damping. Results of analyses show that a more desirable seismic behavior of base-isolated continuous skew bridges can be obtained by reducing the magnitude of the horizontal stiffness of LRB placed at the pier to similar to or less than that of LRB installed at abutments. The variation of LRB’s stiffness at the pier brings about period elongation and the change of mode shapes of base-isolated skew bridges and results in the reduction of the total base shear, the maximum base shear at the pier and the girder stresses. Although positive effects on the seismic behavior of base-isolated skew bridges caused by the change of arrangement of bearings decreased slighty with an increase in the flexibility of the substructure, the proposed arrangements of bearings bring about the improved seismic performance of base-isolated continuous skew plate girder bridges with less than 10m height of piers.
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