DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF BRIDGES WITH PLASTIC HINGES UNDER EXTREME EARTHQUAKES

Abstract

This study is aimed to develop the model of fiber element in the Vector Form Intrinsic Finite Element (VFIFE) to analyze the plastic hinges of reinforced-concrete columns for bridges subjected to extreme earthquakes. The VFIFE, a new computational method, is adopted in this study because of the superior in managing the engineering problems with material nonlinearity, discontinuity, large deformation and arbitrary rigid body motions of deformable bodies. In the past study, a plastic hinge is idealized as a bilinear elastoplastic model with a fracture moment. In order to analyze the realistic behavior of the plastic hinge, especially in ultimate state, the fiber element is developed to simulate the plastic hinge by using stress-strain relations in cover concrete, core concrete and steel fibers. The developed fiber element is verified to be feasible and accurate through numerical simulation. A three-span-continuous isolated bridge is analyzed to investigate the function of the columns and unseating prevention devices and to predict the collapse situation of the whole bridge. In addition, the analysis results are compared between the fiber element and bilinear elastoplastic element.