Spatiotemporal seismic excitation of bridges with an anti-symmetrical first mode

Abstract

This study uses a generalized and parametrized reduced-order model in the frequency-domain to evaluate the effects of asynchronous excitation on the lateral response of bridge structures. Bridge geometry parametric regions, corresponding conceptually to valley profile shapes, are explored. Both modal and bounding analyses, that are dependent on bridge geometry alone, are employed to highlight regions where the first mode is anti-symmetrical and the likely error between identical support excitation (ISE) and multi-support excitation (MSE) analyses is large. Numerical time history analyses, using a heuristic bridge case and spatiotemporal ground motion from the SMART-1 array, are employed. These analyses confirm that in parametric configurations where the first mode is anti-symmetrical the error between MSE and ISE is often larger. This confirms the utility of geometry only modal and bounding analyses in identifying critical regions. These critical parametric cases of a first mode that is anti-symmetrical correspond to shallow valleys with a central rise. In these cases it is recommended that both ISE and MSE analyses should be employed to be conservative.