Keri Lynn Ryan
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 208
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The need to maintain the functionality of critical transportation lifelines after a large seismic event motivates the strategy to design certain bridges for performance standards beyond the minimum required by bridge design codes. To design a bridge to remain operational, one may stiffen and strengthen the load carrying members to increase the capacity, or alternatively use response modification devices such as seismic isolators to shift the dynamic characteristics of the bridge, henceforth reducing the seismic demands. Seismic isolation systems are attractive because they are directly conducive to accelerated bridge construction techniques. The two strategies are compared for a typical Utah highway bridge, using a three-span, pre-stressed concrete girder bridge that crosses Legacy Highway as a case study example.