Estimating the Post-EarthQuake Capacity of Damaged Bridge Columns

Bridges are typically the most restrictive links in the United States transportation network. Following an earthquake, damage to bridges might reduce their traffic load carrying capacity necessitating partial or total closure that will disrupt traffic operations on the network potentially resulting in significant social and indirect economic impacts. The post-earthquake traffic load carrying capacity is subjectively determined after the event based largely on visual inspection and "engineering judgment." Despite over five decades of research and numerous studies on the seismic performance of bridges, a paucity of research studies have critically examined the post-earthquake traffic capacity of damaged bridges. Yet the post-earthquake capacity of the bridge will dictate the permissible traffic load and hence the impact to the network operations. The objective of this research is to develop a high fidelity meta-model to accurately and efficiently estimate the post-earthquake capacity of damaged bridge columns. The significance of the high fidelity meta-model is that it will provide a tool to state department of transportation (DOT) officials for the rapid post-earthquake assessment to support decision-making regarding the functionality of the bridge following an earthquake and to provide a fundamental link between agents (infrastructure and transportation network) to facilitate multi-agent simulation of large, distributed, dependent infrastructure systems with minimal computational demand.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $91437.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT012-G-UTC-03

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center

  Pennsylvania State University
  201 Transportation Research Building
  University Park, PA  United States  16802-4710
• Performing Organizations:

  Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute
  Research Office Building
  University Park, PA  United States  16802-4710
• Principal Investigators:

  Warn, Gordon

• Start Date: 20130101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20131231
• Source Data: RiP Project 33587

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bearing capacity; Bridges; Columns; Decision making; Earthquakes; Maintenance; Seismicity; Structural health monitoring
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01472301
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT012-G-UTC-03
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 14 2013 1:00AM