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Title:

Performance of Bridge Superstructure Restrainer Systems Under Multihazard Effects

Accession Number:

01476684

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Superstructure unseating was judged as one of the major causes of bridge collapse during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Similar superstructure unseating has been observed subsequent to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Bridge decks submerged during the later events experienced substantial superstructure damage due to hydrodynamic uplift forces due to wave action and hydrostatic uplift forces due to buoyancy coupled with entrapped air below the bridge deck. These events have tested deck to pier restrainer systems. In this paper, the performance of some traditional restrainer systems is assessed through the review of bridge reconnaissance work done subsequent to; (1) hurricane Katrina 2005, (2) Chile earthquake 2010, (3) Japanese earthquake and tsunami 2011, and (4) Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami 2004. The objective of this paper is to point out weaknesses of traditional restrainer systems and provide some recommendations to improve these systems based on successful restrainer applications. The assessment indicate that properly designed shear keys as restrainer systems against horizontal effects due to hurricane induced storm surges and earthquake ground motions are fairly effective for that purpose. Restrainer systems for vertical effects due to storm surges and tsunami induced forces appear to be less successful due to various reasons including failure of anchor bolts connecting restrainers to the structure. The author further recommends a more robust approach to solving the problem of superstructure unseating.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFF50 Seismic Design and Performance of Bridges.

Monograph Accession #:

01470560

Report/Paper Numbers:

13-5382

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Charles, Winsbert C

Pagination:

17p

Publication Date:

2013

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; Photos; References (26) ; Tables

Geographic Terms:

California

Subject Areas:

Bridges and other structures; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-5382

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 5 2013 1:01PM