Evaluation of Models for Seismic Design

About the project:

The use of The Recommended LRFD Guidelines for the Seismic Design of Highway Bridges may significantly change the design of bridges in Virginia for earthquake effects. The recommended guidelines incorporate many levels of seismic design and analysis procedures (SDAP) which require either simplified or complex analysis of the bridge under specified loading. The guidelines are unclear on the sophistication of the model needed to satisfy the provisions. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the different levels or complexities of the modeling to determine the simplest model necessary to give adequate results. The purpose of the proposed research is to employ various levels of sophistication in developing models of a representative bridge structure and to evaluate the response of these models when subjected to typical seismic loading. The structure selected for study will be a multi-span continuous bridge with a steel superstructure that is already in service in an area of high seismicity in Virginia. Based on the evaluation of response, recommendations will be made regarding the simplest model that will still yield satisfactory results for design.

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