SEISMIC: Effect of Vertical Ground Motion on Column Shear Capacity

There has been a great deal of research during the last few years on vertical ground motion and its impact on bridges. Most of this research suggests that vertical ground motion during earthquakes is not a life-safety issue for most bridges. However, one area where results have caused concern is in the shear capacity of bridge columns. Near a fault, vertical ground motion can put a column into tension for short time durations, reducing the column's shear capacity to just the shear strength of the transverse reinforcement. One question is whether columns designed to resist shear using the combined shear strength of the concrete and the transverse reinforcement may be vulnerable during high vertical ground motion. This is a complex issue since strong vertical motion occurs near the beginning of the earthquake record and at high frequency. How this couples with the longer period lateral ground motion to cause column shear damage needs to be investigated. Because columns should never fail in shear, further research is required to determine whether vertical ground motion increases the probability of a shear failure.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $369009.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Project Managers:

  Sheng, Li-Hong

• Performing Organizations:

  Regents of the University of California, Davis

  Davis, CA  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Sashi, Kunnath

• Start Date: 20081201
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20120131
• Source Data: RiP Project 27713

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridges; Columns; Earthquake resistant design; Faults; Risk assessment; Seismicity; Shear strength
• Uncontrolled Terms: Shear capacity
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Geotechnology; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01466059
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: California Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:10PM