Effect of Seismic Source Type on the Expected Behavior of Historic Arch Bridges

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mexico has an important number of cities recognized by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. Many of them have highway and railway bridges with an important historical value product of the construction techniques and materials implemented in those days. In spite of their importance, very few efforts have been led to study the masonry historic bridges’ origin and pathologies that eventually would conduct to a failure condition. The main objectives of this work are to identify the dynamic properties of the masonry historic bridges, to characterize, in a second stage, bridges pathologies, to develop numerical models that allow the correct identification of the structural components of the bridges and subsequently to identify the damage mechanisms of this type of structures, and finally to evaluate the influence of the epicentral distance and seismic fault on the seismic vulnerability of the bridges. The study determines the dynamic properties of five existing historical bridges by conducting a campaign of ambient vibration tests. These results allowed to calibrate numerical models used to construct fragility curves and to determine the seismic vulnerability of the bridges.