Seismic Instrumentation at theI-40 Hernando Desoto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee

摘要

Over the past several years, The Hernando Desoto Bridge carrying I-40 across the Mississippi river at Memphis has been the scene of an intensive strong motion monitoring project, involving the installation of numerous traditional and several nontraditional forms of instrumentation designed to characterize the response of the structure to shaking from seismic and induced sources. Figure 1 illustrates the location of the I-40 bridge. This bridge is being retrofitted to withstand a magnitude (mb) 7 event at 65 km distance from the site at a depth of 20 km. The goal of the retrofit is to have this bridge fully operational following the maximum probable earthquake (2500 year return period). As part of the I-40 bridge retrofit, Friction PendulumTM Isolation Bearings have been used to insure the integrity of the main spans of the bridge.