Seismic endurance of box-girder bridge with different piers

Abstract

According to recent data, many bridges tend to fail due to seismic inadequacy in design. Circular piers are more effective in reducing scour depth and increasing the durability of bridges than an elliptical bridge pier. The question is “whether circular pier performs better under seismic action than elliptical pier or not”. So a comparative study was conducted to analyze the behavior of circular and elliptical piers under earthquake forces, and complete nonlinear static pushover analysis was carried out for two different bridge models separately. Pushover curve data from Indian Standard Code was used to formulate the problem and performance outcomes of the bridges were analyzed. It was found that single circular pier showed no failure and better performance in both directions of the bridge, with more displacement capacity than double elliptical piers when subjected to incremental lateral loads. The design capacity (D/C) ratio in the longitudinal direction was 1.8 times more for single circular pier bridge and in the transverse direction, the ratio was 1.4 times more for double elliptical pier bridge for the considered earthquake situation. Results also showed 47% less drift value for single circular pier bridge compared to double elliptical pier bridge.