Effects of lateral spreading on bridges in the 2010–2011 Christchurch earthquakes

Effect of inclined pile on seismic response of bridge abutments undergoing liquefaction—Induced lateral displacement: Case study of Nishikawa bridge in the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake

“…This phenomenon was also found for some abutments supported by inclined piles during the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes where substantial slumping of the approaches was reported near these abutments due to soil liquefaction. The reason for the backward rotation of the abutment was probably because of the deck pinning of short-span bridges (Cubrinovski et al, 2014).…”

“…The safety of the soil-pile -bridge system is a primary concern in the engineering practice (Gerolymos et al, 2008;Cubrinovski et al, 2014;Qu et al, 2018a;Qu et al, 2018b;Qu et al, 2019). Liquefaction-induced lateral displacement has caused much damage to the piled abutment of bridges in the past earthquakes, such as the 1991 Costa Rica Earthquake, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake (Gerolymos et al, 2008;Cubrinovski et al, 2014; National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management of Japan, Public Works Research Institute of Japan, 2014; Tazohb et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2023). It is reported that the inclined piles are more effective than vertical piles in restricting lateral displacements of superstructures subjected to liquefaction induced lateral displacement.…”

“…It is reported that the inclined piles are more effective than vertical piles in restricting lateral displacements of superstructures subjected to liquefaction induced lateral displacement. However, the evidence shows that the inclined pile could be either beneficial or detrimental for the abutment they support in the condition of liquefaction-induced lateral displacement (Gerolymos et al, 2008;Cubrinovski et al, 2014). For example, the liquefaction-induced lateral displacement caused a lateral displacement of approximately 1-2 m at the unconstrained river banks in the vicinity of South Brighton Bridge during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.…”

“…As a result, the bridge abutment rotated by 8 °and the pile head displaced laterally approximately 20 cm. Nevertheless, following the infilling of the offsets between the approaches and the deck, the bridge was back in service immediately after the earthquake (Cubrinovski et al, 2014). However, a detrimental case related to the bridge abutment supported by inclined piles were found on Rio Vizcaya Bridge during the 1991 Costa Rica Earthquake.…”

“…However, the effect of the superstructure (i.e., deck) wasn't considered in the above analyses. Cubrinovski et al (2014) found that the deck pinning contributes significantly to the back rotation of the piled abutment of short-span bridges in the case of liquefaction-induced lateral displacement; Nakata et al (2018) used a large shaking table (i.e., E-Defense) facility to investigate both the liquefaction effect and the deck pinning effect on the bridge abutment supported by the vertical piles. Shin et al (2008) and Wang et al (2018) pointed out that appropriate modeling of soil-pile-deck interaction is necessary for understanding of the seismic response of bridge abutments, especially when the abutment piles encounter the problem of the liquefaction-induced lateral displacement.…”