DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A MULTIBODY DYNAMICS MODEL FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF THE SEISMIC RETROFIT POTENTIAL OF BRIDGE EXPANSION JOINTS

摘要

Various types of devices are used to protect structures from seismic collapse, such as hydraulic or metallic hysteretic dampers or elastomeric and spherical pendulum bearings as isolators. In this paper however, a component which is already included in almost every medium to long span bridge, will be investigated and optimized to act as an earthquake protection device: the bridge expansion joints. Those structural components are placed between the abutment and the bridge superstructure or between different bridge sections to compensate relative movements, such as heat expansion elongation. Since these devices are often connected to bridge ends, the application of the expansion joints as a seismic protection device is potentiall y very beneficial. Also, it is expected to be economically advantageous because expansion joints are included by most bridges and under certain circumstances additional and expensive other protection devices can be replaced. The Paper demonstrates an approach of creating a precise and efficient multibody simulation model of expansion joints which will able to computationally determine their impact on seismic events.