Inertial interaction effects on deck isolated bridges

Abstract

This work investigates the influence of a flexible foundation on the nonlinear dynamic response of a group of representative deck isolated bridges (24 cases) located on two different soil types. The bridges were analyzed with full 3D models. Inertial soil structure interaction (SSI) effects were studied modeling the flexibility of the foundations with constant springs and dashpots defined at a particular frequency. Kinematic SSI effects were not included. The study was conducted in three stages: first the seismic response of the bridges without deck isolation on rigid supports was obtained, next the response of the bridges with deck isolation, but still on rigid supports was considered; finally analyses were conducted of the bridges with deck isolation and SSI. The results from the three cases were compared. They indicated that for bridges and foundations designed according to the Mexican design criteria inertial interaction effects were not significant. To assess by how much the stiffness of the foundation would have to be reduced (due perhaps to nonlinear soil behavior) a simplified model with 2DOF was used to conduct more parametric studies. The main conclusion is that the reduction in the stiffness would have to be considerable.