DATA PROCESSING AND METHODOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING SEISMIC RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS OF MELOLAND ROAD OVERPASS

The Meloland Road Overpass, a two-span reinforced concrete bridge located near El Centro, California, survived very strong shaking during the 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake with virtually no damage. This shaking triggered an array of 26 strong motion accelerometers located on or near the bridge, providing the most extensive array of earthquake response measurements yet obtained for bridges in the United States. In view of this, a project is being implemented to our understanding of the behavior and design of bridges in an earthquake environment. This paper describes new methodologies developed under this project to support this data evaluation effort, as well as special data digitization and processing operations necessitated by field recorder malfunctions. (Author)