On seismic vulnerability of highway bridges in Nepal: 1988 Udaypur earthquake (MW 6.8) revisited

Abstract

Highway bridges are one of the most important components of transportation system thus continuous operability is expected even after strong to major earthquakes. Nepal is situated in one of the most active seismic regions in the world and devastating earthquakes are frequent, however, to the best knowledge of the author, fragility functions for Nepali highway bridges do not exist until now. This paper is a first attempt to depict the seismic vulnerability of highway bridges in Nepal. Observational data from 1988 Udaypur earthquake were adopted to construct fragility functions for minor damage state DS1. Comparison between the constructed fragility curve with other observational fragility curves for similar damage state highlighted that Nepali highway bridges can be affected minor damage even in very low peak ground acceleration.