• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Contrast to the conventional jointed bridge design, integral abutment bridges (IABs) offer some marked advantages like reduced maintenance and enhanced service life of the structure due to elimination of joints in the deck and monolithic construction practices. However, the force transfer mechanism during seismic and thermal movements is a topic of interest owing to rigid connection between superstructure and substructure (piers and abutments). This study attempts to model an existing IAB by including the abutment backfill interaction and soil-foundation interaction effects using Winkler foundation assumption to determine its seismic response. Keeping in view the significance of abutment behavior in an IAB, the probability of damage to the abutment is evaluated using fragility function. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) approach is used in this regard, wherein, nonlinear time history analyses are conducted on the numerical model using a selected suite of ground motions with increasing intensities until damage to abutment. It is concluded from the fragility analysis results that for a MCE level earthquake in the location of integral bridge, the probability of complete damage to the abutment is minimal.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.373-385
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• 2019

In this article, different frequently adopted modeling aspects of linear and nonlinear dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) are studied on a pile-supported integral abutment bridge structure using the open-source platform OpenSees (McKenna et al. 2000, Mazzoni et al. 2007, McKenna and Fenves 2008) for a 2D domain. Analyzed approaches are as follows: (i) free field input at the base of fixed base bridge; (ii) SSI input at the base of fixed base bridge; (iii) SSI model with two dimensional quadrilateral soil elements interacting with bridge and incident input motion propagating upwards at model bottom boundary (with and without considering the effect of abutment backfill response); (iv) simplified SSI model by idealizing the interaction between structural and soil elements through nonlinear springs (with and without considering the effect of abutment backfill response). Salient conclusions of this paper include: (i) free-field motions may differ significantly from those computed at the base of the bridge foundations, thus put a significant bias on the inertial component of SSI; (ii) conventional modeling of SSI through series of soil springs and dashpot system seems to stay on the safer side under dynamic conditions when one considers the seismic actions on the structure by considering a fully coupled SSI model; (iii) consideration of abutment-backfill in the SSI model positively affects the general response of the bridge, as a result of large passive resistance that may develop behind the abutments.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.667-674
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• 2011

This paper discusses the analysis method of prestressed concrete girder integral abutment bridges for a 75-year bridge life and the development of prediction models for abutment displacements under thermal loading due to annual temperature fluctuation and time-dependent loading. The developed nonlinear numerical modeling methodologies considered soil-structure interaction between supporting piles and surrounding soils and between abutment and backfills. Material nonlinearity was also considered to simulate differential rotation in construction joints between abutment and backwall. Based on the numerical modeling methodologies, a parametric study of 243 analysis cases, considering five parameters: (1) thermal expansion coefficient, (2) bridge length, (3) backfill height, (4) backfill stiffness, and (5) pile soil stiffness, was performed to established prediction models for abutment displacements over a bridge life. The parametric study results revealed that thermal expansion coefficient, bridge length, and pile-soil stiffness significantly influenced the abutment displacement. Bridge length parameter significantly influenced the abutment top displacement at the centroid of the superstructure, which is similar to the free expansion analysis results. Developed prediction model can be used for a preliminary design of integral abutment bridges.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.759-767
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• 2003

This paper presents the simplified but more rational analysis method for the prediction of additional internal forces induced in integral abutment bridges. These internal forces depend upon the degree of restraint provided tc the deck by the backfill soil adjacent to the abutments and piles. In addition, effect of the relative flexural stiffness ratio among pile foundations, abutment, and superstructure on the structural behavior is also an important factor. The first part of the paper develops the stiffness matrices, written in terms of the soil stiffness, for the lateral and rotational restraints provided by the backfill soil adjacent to the abutment. The finite difference analysis is conducted and it is confirmed that the results are agreed well with the predictions obtained by the proposed method. The simplified spring model is used in the parametric study on the behavior of simple span and multi-span continuous integral abutment PSC beam bridges in which the abutment height and the flexural rigidity of piles are varied. These results are compared with those obtained by loading Rankine passive earth pressure according to the conventional method. From the results of parametric study, it was shown that the abutment height, the relative flexural rigidity of superstructure and piles, and the earth pressure induced by temperature change greatly affect the overall structural response of the bridge system. It may be possible to obtain more rational and economical designs for integral abutment bridges by the proposed method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-28
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• 2019

This article investigates the response of Integral Abutment Bridges (IAB) when subjected to a sequence of seasonal thermal loading of the deck followed by ground seismic shaking in the longitudinal direction. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of pre-seismic thermal Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) on the seismic performance of the IAB, as well as on the ability of various backfills configurations, to minimize the unfavorable SSI effects. A series of two-dimensional numerical analyses were performed for this purpose, on a complete backfill-integral bridge-foundation soil system, subjected to seasonal cyclic thermal loading of the deck, followed by ground seismic shaking, employing ABAQUS. Various backfill configurations were investigated, including conventional dense cohesionless backfills, mechanically stabilized backfills and backfills isolated by means of compressive inclusions. The responses of the investigated configurations, in terms of backfill deformations and earth pressures, and bridge resultants and displacements, were compared with each other, as well as with relevant predictions from analyses, where the pre-seismic thermal SSI effects were neglected. The effects of pre-seismic thermal SSI on the seismic response of the coupled IAB-soil system were more evident in cases of conventional backfills, while they were almost negligible in case of IAB with mechanically stabilized backfills and isolated abutments. Along these lines, reasonable assumptions should be made in the seismic analysis of IAB with conventional sand backfills, to account for pre-seismic thermal SSI effects. On the contrary, the analysis of the SSI effects, caused by thermal and seismic loading, can be disaggregated in cases of IAB with isolated backfills.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.17-24
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• 2002

Dynamic behaviors of a bridge system with several simple spans are evaluated to examine the effects of nonlinear abutment motions upon the seismic responses of the bridge. The idealized mechanical model for the whole bridge system is developed by adopting the multi-degree-of-freedom system, which can consider various influential components. To compare the results, both linear and nonlinear abutment-backfill models are prepared. The linear system has the constant abutment stiffness, and the nonlinear system has the nonlinear stiffness considering the abutment stiffness degradation due to the abutment-soil interaction. From simulation results, the nonlinear abutment motion is found to have an important influence upon the global bridge motions. Maximum relative distances between adjacent vibration units are found to be larger than those found from the linear system. In particular, maximum relative distances at the location with the highest possibility of unseating failure are increased up to about 30% in the nonlinear system. The effects of nonlinear behavior of an abutment on the bridge seismic behaviors are also increased as the number of span increase. Therefore, it can be concluded that the abutment-soil interaction should be considered in the seismic analysis of the bridge system.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.347-354
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• 2000

The seismic behaviors of a bridge system with several simple spans are examined to see the effects of the longitudinal stiffness degradation due to abutment-soil interaction. The abutment-backfill system is modeled as one degree-of-freedom-system with nonlinear spring and linear damper. various soil-conditions surrounding the abutment such as loose sand, medium dense sand, and dense sand are considered in the bridge seismic analysis. The idealized mechanical model for the whole bridge system is modeled by adopting the multiple-degree-of-freedom system, which can consider components such as pounding phenomena, friction at the movable supports, rotational and translational motions of foundations, and the nonlinear pier motions. The stiffness of the abutment is found to be rapidly reduced at the beginning of the earthquakes, and to be converged to constant values shortly after the displacement approaches to the Predefined critical values. It is observed that the maximum relative distanced an maximum relative displacements are generally Increased as the relative density of a soil decreases As the peak ground acceleration increases, the response ratio of the case considering stiffness degradation to the case considering constant stiffness decreases.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.195-202
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• 2008

The transition area between a bridge and an earthwork is one of the weakest area of track because of the track geometry deterioration caused unequal settlement of backfill of abutment. In case of a ballastless track, the approach slab could be installed to prevent such a phenomenon. But, if there is occurred the inclined displacement on the approach slab by a settlement of the foundation or formation, the track is also under the inclined displacement. And this defect causes reducing the running stability of a vehicle, the riding comfort of passengers, and increasing the track deteriorations by excessive impact force acting on the track. In this study, parametric studies were performed to investigate the displacement limit on the approach slab to avoid such problems. The length and the amount of unequal settlement of approach slab were adopted as parameter for numerical analysis considering vehicle-track interaction. Car body accelerations, variations of wheel force, stresses in rail, and uplift forces induced on fastener clip were investigated. From the result, resonable settlement limit on the end of an approach slab according to slab length was suggested.