Seismic Response of a PC Continuous Box Girder Bridge under Extreme Ambient Temperature

Abstract

To study the effect of temperature on the seismic performance of a prestressed reinforced concrete (PC) continuous girder bridge with laminated rubber bearings (LRBs), a two-linked continuous bridge was used as the background to consider the effect of extreme temperature on the properties of LRBs and pier concrete. First, the properties of concrete specimens were tested at different temperatures to obtain their mechanical parameters at extreme temperatures. Then, we obtained the effect of extreme temperature on the seismic response of consecutive bridges with LRBs by examining the seismic response of the pier moments, pier top displacements, and bearing deformations. The results show that compared with normal temperatures, the extreme temperature causes a change in parameters of the LRBs and concrete pier, which increases the internal force and displacement response of a pier under an extremely low temperature by 37.13% and 32.74%, respectively. The displacement of bearings under extremely high temperature conditions increases by 16.31%. The influence of temperature changes on the mechanical parameters of LRBs will change the connection stiffness of the pier and superstructure, resulting in significant changes in the seismic response of the pier and bearing, so that the internal force and displacement response of the pier are negatively correlated with the temperature.

The Geometric Configuration of Lubricant Recesses of the Polymer Sliding Layer of the Bearing

“…Bridges are one of the major infrastructure elements of transportation systems around the world; however, such structures are not durable. Various factors lead to the deterioration of a bridge structure, especially external loads of natural character [1,2], temperature [3], loads from traffic flows, internal reactions, and the aging of materials. Maintenance and monitoring of the condition of the structure and its load-bearing elements are performed to increase the bridge life resource [4,5].…”