Dynamic stiffness of bridge abutments

Abstract

Strong motion records obtained in instrumented short-span bridges show the importance of the abutments in the dynamic response of the whole structure. Many models have been used in order to take into account pier foundations influence although no reliable ones have been used to analyse the abutment performance. In this work two and three dimensional Boundary Element models in frequency domain habe been proposed and dimensionless dynamic stiffness of standard bridge abutments have been obtained. Also, a simple analytical model of a short span bridge including inertial interaction efects of pier foundations and abutments has been presented in order to evaluate the response sensitivities to different soil-structure interaction variables.