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Seismic performance and effect of curved geometry on isolation
system in horizontally curved bridge
*Nitin P. Kataria1) and R. S. Jangid2)
1), 2) Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai –
400 076, India

1)
npkataria@iitb.ac.in, 2)rsjangid@civil.iitb.ac.in
ABSTRACT
Seismic response of horizontally curved concrete box girder bridge isolated by the
Elastomeric Rubber Bearings (ERBs) is carried out. The effect of curved geometry on
the performance of isolation system is studied under excitation with four different
ground motions of different frequency spectrum characteristic, and each ground motion
contains three-directions. The selected bridge consists of three span continuous
concrete box girder superstructure supported on piers and abutments. In the modeling
of the bridge, the deck is modeled as a single spine beam, made up of small straight
beam elements with 6 DOF at each node. The coupled equations of motion for isolated
system are derived and solved in the incremental form using Newark’s step-by-step
method. In addition, comparison is made between the response of curved isolated
bridge with straight isolated bridge (having the same cross section and material
property) in order to study the effect of curved geometry on the response of the
isolation system. It is observed that ERBs system is effective for controlling the seismic
response of curved bridge and effect of curved geometry makes no significant
difference in peak response of ERBs system.
1. INTRODUCTION
In past various devastating earthquakes inflicted heavy damage to bridges resulting

into heavy casualties and economic losses. It is observed that the damage to bridges in
the earthquakes is mainly due to shear failure of piers and due to excessive
displacement of bridge deck and bearings. Additionally, bridges with curved
configurations may sustain severe damage owing to rotation of the superstructure or
displacement toward the outside of the curve line during an severe earthquake (Galindo
et al. 2009). Failure of bridges during a seismic event will seriously hamper the relief
and rehabilitation work, as they serve as major access and evacuation routes during
and after catastrophic events, so bridges come under the category of lifeline structures.
Therefore, there is a need of finding more rational and substantiated solutions for
protection of bridges from severe earthquake ground motion.
1)Research Scholar
2)Professor
1934
The traditional way to improve performance of bridge during earthquake by reducing
vibration due to seismic event is done by making its member stronger and more ductile.
This approach, based on ensuring of strength-ductility combination, provides the strong
seismic action as ultimate loads, accepting a certain number of structural or non-
structural degradations. This indicates that, bridges designed with traditional methods
are still vulnerable in strong seismic event. The performance of bridges during
earthquakes can be improved by making use of suitable energy dissipation devices in
the bridge system. In the case of bridges, those usually have a simple structural
configuration, made from a continuous deck supported on the top of the pier by simple
bearings only with the function of supporting gravity loads, the seismic isolation
bearings, can be replace conventional bridge bearings, decouple the superstructure
from piers and abutments during earthquakes. This significantly reduces the seismic
forces induced in the bridge structure, and lowers the strength and ductility demands on
the bridge (Kunde and Jangid 2003).
Lei and Chien (2004) shown that the isolation performance on base shear reduction
of curved bridge will be closely related to the content of the earthquake and the
curvature angle of the structure. They concluded that the use of the isolator with
smaller stiffness in lead rubber bearing series or with lower frictional coefficient in the
friction pendulum system series would induce a better performance on base shear
reduction. Liu et al. (2011) established the three-dimensional computational model of a
double-pier curved continuous girder bridge and viscous dampers were added at the
positions of sliding bearings by them. Ates and Constantinou (2011a, b) studied the
effects of the earthquake ground motions on the seismic response of isolated and non-
isolated curved bridges including soil structure interaction using response history
–
analysis and response spectrum analysis. The above review indicates that very few
studies are reported on the behavior of isolated horizontally curved concrete box girder
bridge. Therefore, it will be interesting to study the dynamic behavior of isolated curved
concrete box girder bridge and effect of curved geometry on the performance of
isolation system.
The present study signifies the seismic response of horizontally curved concrete box
girder bridge isolated by the ERBs system. Parametric study of ERBs is carried out for
obtaining better response under different earthquake ground motion. Using different
evaluation criteria effectiveness of ERBs is studied. Also, the effect of curved geometry
on the performance of ERBs system is studied by comparing the response of curved
isolated bridge with the response of straight isolated bridge.
2. MODELLING OF CURVED BRIDGE
The bridge model used for the present study is that of Federal Highway Administration
Seismic Design Course, Design Example No. 6, prepared by BERGER/ABAM
Engineers (Berger / Abam Engineers 1996), and also used by (Ates and Constantinou
2011a and b) for getting seismic response of isolated curved bridge with some
modification. The selected bridge is three spans, cast-in-place concrete box girder
superstructure supported on reinforced concrete columns as shown in Fig. 1. The span
length of curved bridge along the centerline is 27.25 m, 33.5 m, and 27.25 m
1935
respectively and width of deck is 11.8 m. The alignment of road way over the bridge is
sharply horizontally curved (104o). The two intermediate bents consist of rectangular
columns with cross section area 1.7 m 2 and 6.4 m height from ground surface. The
super structure consists of three cell deck with 10% slope with horizontal. The
geometry of the bridge and section properties is the same as in the original bridge in
the FHWA example. It is presumed (without any checks) that the original bridge design
is enough to sustain the loads and displacement demands when seismically isolated as
described herein. The bridge is isolated with two isolators at each abutment and pier
location for a total of eight isolators. The isolators are directly located above the cap of
the rectangular columns and the abutments. The properties of the bridge deck and pier
are as given in Table 1. The following assumptions are also made for seismic analyses
of the bridges under consideration:
1)Bridge superstructure and piers are assumed to remain in the elastic state
during the earthquake excitation,
2)The abutments of bridge are assumed as rigid and Piers are considered as fixed
at ground level,
3)The effect of soil structure interaction is not taken in consideration,
4)The bridge deck is modeled as single spin beam made up from small straight
beam element. Each adjacent element is connected by a node,
5)The mass of each element is assumed to be distributed between the two
adjacent nodes in the form of point masses and,
6)Stiffness contribution of non-structural elements such as side walk and parapet is
neglected.
The selected bridge is modeled as a multi degree of freedom (MDOF) system.

Based on the detailed drawings of the curved bridge, a 3D evaluation model is made in
MATLAB. As the central angle of curved concrete bridge is between 12 o and 46o
between supports, the deck is modeled as single spine beam, which is made up from
small straight beam element with included angle less than 3.5 o as specified
in American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO),
Table 1. Properties of bridge deck and piers
Properties Deck Piers

Cross-sectional area (m2) 6.238 1.7
4
Moment of Inertia (m ) 2.7074 0.409416
Young’s modulus of elasticity (m2) 3.2*1010 3.2x1010

Mass Density (kg/m3) 2.5x103 2.5x103
Length/height (m) 88 6.4
1936
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
1937
Fig. 1 a)
The curved bridge plan, b) developed elevation, c) section of the
superstructure, and d) horizontal sections of the pier.
load and Resistance Bridge design specification reported in National Cooperative
Highway Research Program (NCHRP) report 620 (Redfield et al. 2008). The number of
elements considered in the bridge deck and piers are 32 and 4, respectively. The
idealized mathematical model of bridge is as shown in Fig.2.
Fig. 2 Mathematical model of isolated bridge
3.GOVERNING EQUATIONS OF MOTION
The general equation of motion for a structural system subjected to seismic loads is
express as
(1)
where, is the second time derivative of the displacement response vector

, ,and are the mass, damping and stiffness matrices of the structure, is
2
the vector of control force inputs, [m/s ] is the ground acceleration, is a vector
of zeros and ones, relating the ground acceleration to the bridge degrees of freedom
(DOF), and is a vector relating the force produced by the control device to the bridge
DOFs.
Firstly, individual elemental stiffness matrix of each element is formed and using
transformation matrix it converted in to global matrix. Global Stiffness matrix of
structure is assembled using elemental global stiffness matrices. Similarly, global mass
matrix for structure is assembled. Thus, response of the structure is evaluated step-by-
step at successive increments of time. It is assumed that the properties of the system
remain constant during the time increment. Incremental equations of motion are solved
using the Newmark-beta method. The global damping matrix C is a combination of the
distributed 5% inherent Rayleigh damping in the first two modes.
4.ELASTOMERIC RUBBER BEARING (ERBs)
ERBs consist of thin layers of rubber and steel plates built in alternate layers as shown
in Fig. 3(a). The internal steel plates, referred to as shims. The vertical stiffness of the
bearing is several hundred times the horizontal stiffness, which is due to the presence
1938

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Seismic performance and effect of curved geometry on isolation

system in horizontally curved bridge

*Nitin P. Kataria1) and R. S. Jangid2)

1), 2) Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai –

400 076, India

In past various devastating earthquakes inflicted heavy damage to bridges resulting

2. MODELLING OF CURVED BRIDGE

The selected bridge is modeled as a multi degree of freedom (MDOF) system.

Table 1. Properties of bridge deck and piers

Properties Deck Piers

Young’s modulus of elasticity (m2) 3.2*1010 3.2x1010

Fig. 2 Mathematical model of isolated bridge

3.GOVERNING EQUATIONS OF MOTION

where, is the second time derivative of the displacement response vector

4.ELASTOMERIC RUBBER BEARING (ERBs)

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