Effects of frozen soils on the seismic behavior of highway bridge foundation.

摘要

It is known that seasonally frozen soil affects the structural dynamic response significantly. A bridge was instrumented to monitor its seismic performance and assess the impact of seasonally frozen soil on the bridge performance. Meanwhile a Finite Element (FE) model was created for this bridge by using OpenSees simulation platform to analyze the impact. It was found that when the frost depth reaches 4.0 feet, the first transverse modal frequency increases about 200% when compared with no frost case. Frozen silt p-y curves were obtained by using the lateral response data measured from the pile test conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska and recommendations were made for constructing a p-y curve for frozen silt. The recommended p-y curve, which has been validated by a field test, provides a simple design tool to consider seasonally frozen soil-pile interaction in the seismic design of pile foundations in practice.