Application of an energy-dissipating sacrificial device (EDSD) for seismic performance improvement of girder bridges

摘要

A new Energy-Dissipating Sacrificial Device (EDSD) is proposed, which can effectively dissipate the energy stored in the structures during seismic actions. A mathematical bridge analysis method is developed to represent the behavior of the bridge with the EDSD. To verify the performance of the EDSD, various seismic responses of a sample bridge with the EDSD are analyzed in terms of energy and deformation using the developed analysis method. The results show that the proposed EDSD under seismic excitations can significantly decrease the excessive storing energy in the bridge structures and reduce the relative displacements of each superstructure to the ground. The EDSD is also found to function as a structural fuse under strong ground motions, sacrificing itself to absorb the excessive energy. Consequently, economical enhancement of the seismic performance of bridges can be achieved by employing the newly developed energy dissipating sacrificial device (EDSD).