Nonlinear FE model updating and reconstruction of the response of an instrumented seismic isolated bridge to the 2010 Maule Chile earthquake

Abstract

Summary Nonlinear finite element (FE) modeling has been widely used to investigate the effects of seismic isolation on the response of bridges to earthquakes. However, most FE models of seismic isolated bridges (SIB) have used seismic isolator models calibrated from component test data, while the prediction accuracy of nonlinear FE models of SIB is rarely addressed by using data recorded from instrumented bridges. In this paper, the accuracy of a state‐of‐the‐art FE model is studied through nonlinear FE model updating (FEMU) of an existing instrumented SIB, the Marga‐Marga Bridge located in Viña del Mar, Chile. The seismic isolator models are updated in 2 phases: component‐wise and system‐wise FEMU. The isolator model parameters obtained from 23 isolator component tests show large scatter, and poor goodness of fit of the FE‐predicted bridge response to the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile Earthquake is obtained when most of those parameter sets are used for the isolator elements of the bridge model. In contrast, good agreement is obtained between the FE‐predicted and measured bridge response when the isolator model parameters are calibrated using the bridge response data recorded during the mega‐earthquake. Nonlinear FEMU is conducted by solving single‐ and multiobjective optimization problems using high‐throughput cloud computing. The updated FE model is then used to reconstruct response quantities not recorded during the earthquake, gaining more insight into the effects of seismic isolation on the response of the bridge during the strong earthquake.

Collapse prognosis of a long‐span cable‐stayed bridge based on shake table test and nonlinear model updating

“…An effective way to reduce the modelling uncertainties of civil structures is to update the numerical model based on the measurement data acquired by the SHM systems. Existing studies have attempted to improve the accuracy of FE models through various model updating algorithms 18‐22 . Hasançebi and Dumlupınar 18 updated a reinforced‐concrete T‐beam bridge using an artificial neural network (ANN)–based method.…”

“…Xiao et al 19 built a multi‐scale FE model of the Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong and updated the modal frequencies and static responses of the model based on the response surface model (RSM) and multi‐start optimisation algorithm. Li et al 20 and Zheng et al 21 conducted the nonlinear model updating of reinforced concrete bridges based on the OpenSees‐SNOPT framework developed by Gu et al 23 Li et al 20 updated the modelling parameters of the high‐damping rubber bearings in a seismically isolated bridge and reconstructed the nonlinear seismic responses of the bridge during the 2010 Maule Chile earthquake. Zheng et al 21 conducted a shake table test on a 1:12 scaled pedestrian bridge and established the corresponding fibre beam‐column element‐based FE model in OpenSees.…”

Cluster computing‐aided model updating for a high‐fidelity finite element model of a long‐span cable‐stayed bridge

“…The parallel model updating technique takes full advantage of the computational resources available on a computer or a distributed computing cluster/cloud. Although there are many successful implementations of model updating for engineering structures in the literature, most of the models are surrogate models, small‐scale FE models, or small portions of a large FE model. It will become computationally prohibitive if considering the model updating of an entire FE model of a long‐span cable‐stayed bridge.…”

“…Deng and Cai updated a 15‐beam‐element simply supported beam using the response surface method (RSM) and the GA method. Gu et al proposed an OpenSees‐SNOPT framework for the model updating of FE models in OpenSees, which was further adopted by Li et al in the FE model updating of an isolated bridge. Xin et al updated the nonlinear responses of a high‐voltage transmission tower structure using a Bayesian‐based method, in which the instantaneous characteristics of the structure are extracted from the dynamic responses and a gradient‐based interior‐point (IP) method is used for searching the optimum.…”

Effects of model uncertainty in nonlinear structural finite element model updating by numerical simulation of building structures

“…During recent years, new approaches have been proposed to update mechanics-based nonlinear FE models, and they have been widely verified using numerically simulated data (e.g., other studies [7][8][9][10] ). To the knowledge of the authors, the only study calibrating a mechanics-based nonlinear FE model using experimental data from a full-scale structure is the recent work by Li et al, 11 which employs the data recorded on a highway isolated bridge during the 2010 Maule, Chile, earthquake to update a detailed nonlinear FE model by estimating three parameters governing the hysteretic curve of the isolator model. It is noted that using mechanics-based nonlinear FE models allow to deal with a relatively low number of model parameters to be estimated, as discussed in Astroza et al 7 In both cases of FE model updating (i.e., based on linear and nonlinear FE models), the DID problem involves two main sources of uncertainty: measurement noise and modeling errors.…”