EFFECT OF NON-LINEAR FLUID VISCOUS DAMPERS ON THE SIZEOF EXPANSION JOINTS OF MULTI-SPAN PRESTRESSED CONCRETESEGMENTAL BOX-GIRDER BRIDGES

摘要

Modular expansion joints are important components of any long- or medium-span bridge. They aredesigned to provide continuity of the bridge deck where breaks in the superstructure are made toaccommodate short- and long-term deformations of the bridge. Such deformations include thermalexpansions, drying shrinkage, creep and, for structures located in active seismic regions, earthquakeinduced deformations. This paper presents the results of a numerical study to investigate the possibility ofreducing, through the use of non-linear Fluid Viscous Dampers (FVDs), the size of the modular expansionjoints of a multi-span segmental prestressed concrete bridge. For the case studied, the results show that byusing non-linear FVDs, the expansion joints can be reduced up to 50% with respect to the original designsize. This study also shows that by using FVDs the overall dynamic behavior of the model is improvedreducing the risk of damage of the expansion joints due to possible pounding between bridge frames.Additional benefits include a significant reduction in the longitudinal pier moments.