Maintenance of bridge deck joints is a costly problem. Debris accumulation in the joints can restrain deck expansion, caus ing undesirable forces in the deck and damage to the structure. Water leaking through the joints is a major cause for the deterioration of bridge girder bearings and supporting structures. Therefore, elimination of deck joints at the supports of multispan bridges will reduce the cost of construction and maintenance. This paper presents the results of a test program to investigate the behavior of link slabs connecting two adjacent simple-span girders, and proposes a simple method for designing the link slab. To illustrate the proposed design method, three design examples are included.
This study focuses on the development of analytical fragility curves for the ordinary highway bridges constructed after the 1990s. Four major bridge classes were employed based on skew angle, number of columns per bent, and span number (only multispan bridges). Nonlinear response-history analyses (NRHA) were conducted for each bridge sample using a detailed 3-D analytical model subjected to earthquake ground motions of varying seismic intensities. A component-based approach that uses several engineering demand parameters was employed to determine the seismic response of critical bridge components. Corresponding damage limit states were defined either in terms of member capacities or excessive bearing displacements. Lognormal fragility curves were obtained by curve fitting the point estimates of the probability of exceeding each specified damage limit state for each major bridge class. Bridges with larger skew angles or single-column bents were found to be the most seismically vulnerable.
The October 30, 2020 Earthquake caused unexpectedly significant damage in İzmir considering its distance to the city. This paper evaluates the recorded ground motions, summarizes the performance of structures affected from the earthquake with emphasis on the reasons of damage. A detailed damage assessment was carried out by the Earthquake Engineering Research Center of Middle East Technical University to compile data on the damage of RC and masonry buildings. It was observed that majority of the damage was concentrated in the Bayraklı district due to its peculiar soil properties where many 7–10 story mid-rise RC buildings suffered heavy damage and collapse. The level of amplified ground motions combined with deficiencies of apparently non-code compliant buildings exacerbated the damage. The main reasons of damage were mainly attributed to the presence of soft stories, lack of proper detailing, poor construction quality, presence of heavy overhangs, and hence significant lack of code-compliance in essence. The influence of infill walls on seismic performance of deficient and inadequate buildings was clearly seen in this earthquake. This paper also discusses seismic code requirements in effect and their influence on the observed building performance. The recorded ground motions were compared with the code spectra to evaluate the performance of the buildings. The code response spectra were found to be well above the recorded ground motion spectra at the sites where significant damage was observed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.