Seismic fragility analysis of irregular continuous rigid frame girder bridge

Abstract

In this paper, probabilistic seismic demand analysis is adopted to investigate the seismic fragility of a certain typical irregular highway bridge in the Chinese western mountainous areas. Considering the uncertainties of ground motion and structural parameters, the sample library for seismic fragility analysis is constructed aided by Latin hypercube sampling method, and the nonlinear time history analysis for each sample is implemented to achieve the structural dynamic response under the seismic excitation. Moreover, the curvature ductility ratio and the relative displacement are regarded as the damage indexes for pier and bearing, respectively. Furthermore, the fragility nephograms for the whole piers and fragility curves for various critical sections with different damage states are obtained based on a lognormal distribution assumption and the reliability theory. Finally, the bridge system fragility curves are generated through the first-order reliability analysis method. Fragility curves obtained from the above proposed technique can be used to evaluate the seismic performance of irregular bridges, and it can lay a basis for post-earthquake damage assessment.