Advances of a FEM for the Failure Probability Evaluation of Masonry Vehicular Bridge Support Piers

Abstract

One of the responsibilities of a Civil Engineer is to make decisions regarding preservation of infrastructure; therefore, there have been established concepts such as risk and risk analysis. Risk analysis, is a methodology applied to determine and evaluate the risk magnitude. From the structural engineering point of view, it is required that any structure become secure, this means that the capacity to withstand external actions (strength) will be higher than these actions (loads). In order to determine the structural safety, it is required to define the failure of the structure that it is not strongly related with the collapse of the structure; the failure criteria needs to be fixed depending on the use of the building and the consequences associated with the interruption of services provided by the facility. The failure then, is calculated by means of a limit state function in where it is established the failure criteria; failure is reached when a specific condition (strength) is surpassed by the actions over the structure. The present work aims to propose a preliminary Finite Element Model (FEM) that represents a pier used as support for vehicular bridges. This FEM is required for the assessment of mechanical behavior of the structure that will be used for the determination of the limit state function needed for risk assessment. Most of the simulations with FEM presented in literature are very used for modeling of masonry walls, but it is not usual to model structures such as bridge piers.