Frozen Soil Lateral Resistance for the Seismic Design of Highway Bridge Foundations

With recent seismic activity and earthquakes in Alaska and throughout the Pacific Rim, seismic design is becoming an increasingly important public safety concern for highway bridge designers. Hoping to generate knowledge that can improve the seismic design of highway bridges in Alaska, researchers from the University of Alaska plan to test a fixity depth approach and a lateral resistance (p-y) approach in seismic bridge design. Currently, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) utilizes soil lateral resistance in the seismic design of bridge pile foundations. Knowledge about lateral resistance of frozen soils, particularly seasonally frozen soils at shallow depths, will help improve pile foundation design in cold regions such as Alaska. Researchers Zhaohui Yang and Anthony Paris are conducting laboratory experiments to examine key mechanical parameters for the frozen soils used to construct the p-y curve for modeling frozen soils. Although there have been studies on the mechanical properties of frozen soils, existing studies were based on remolded, artificially frozen soil samples, which do not necessarily represent the soil in the field. How much impact these disturbances have on the frozen soil strength and stress-strain behavior is not clear. Additionally there is a lack of studies of the stress-strain behavior at small strains based on naturally frozen samples. Yang and Paris hope to fill this knowledge gap by providing key frozen soil parameters for typical Alaska soils. These key soil parameters, Yang and Paris claim, are needed for predicting the formation and location of plastic hinges, and internal loads in bridge pilings embedded in frozen soils during seismic loading. The team will use this developing knowledge to conduct a bridge design engineers workshop to discuss their findings and how to apply them in the seismic design of bridges.

• Record URL:
  http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/projects/frozen-soil-lateral-resistance-for-the-seismic-design-of-highway-bridge-foundations/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $197511.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT06-G-001

  510021

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

  Research & Technology Transfer
  2301 Peger Road
  Fairbanks, AK  United States  99709-5399
• Performing Organizations:

  Alaska University Transportation Center

  University of Alaska, Fairbanks
  P.O. Box 755900
  Fairbanks, AK  United States  99775-5900
• Principal Investigators:

  Paris, Anthony

  Yang, Zhaohui (Joey)

• Start Date: 20110701
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20121231
• Source Data: RiP Project 33867

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge foundations; Earthquake resistant design; Frozen soils; Highway bridges; Mechanical properties; Seismicity
• Geographic Terms: Alaska
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01522816
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Alaska University Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT06-G-001, 510021
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 24 2014 1:00AM