Collapse Failure of Prestressed Concrete Continuous Rigid-Frame Bridge under Strong Earthquake Excitation: Testing and Simulation

AbstractIn recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the collapse failures of long-span continuous rigid-frame bridges under strong earthquake excitations. This paper presents the results of a study in which a 1:15 scaled two-span prestressed concrete continuous rigid-frame bridge model with box-type piers was tested using the shake-table array test system to investigate the seismic response characteristics. Two nonlinear finite-element (FE) models were constructed. The first was a single-girder model that was used to simulate the seismic response under weak seismic waves. The second was an explicit dynamic FE model that was used to simulate the collapse and failure mechanisms of the scaled bridge under strong earthquakes. Testing revealed that the response of the central pier of the prestressed concrete continuous rigid-frame bridge was the largest under seismic excitation, and the damage first appeared at the lower end of the central pier in all cases. The numerical simulations revealed that t...