Evaluation of the seismic damage in reinforced concrete bridges

Abstract

After the last important earthquakes, it was observed that between 3% and 6% of the existing RC structures suffered damage that required some degree of retrofitting. This damage caused important economic losses, due to the rehabilitation or reposition of the damaged elements. This problem and the fact that a big number of existing bridges have a reduced seismic capacity, show the need of simplified analysis models that help the decision-making process about the future of these structures. In this work, the basic formulation of a simplified evaluation model of the seismic damage in RC bridges of simple pier bent is developed. The evaluation of the damage is based on the calculation of the damaged inertia of the bridge piers to estimate their global degradation. By means of a numerical example simulating the behaviour of an Austrian bridge subjected to the Friuli 1976 earthquake, the reliability and efficiency of the proposed model is shown.