Seismic evaluations of many existing deck-truss bridges have revealed the vulnerability of their substructure and members of their superstructure. An innovative retrofit strategy developed by the authors includes replacement of the existing non-ductile end and lower-end bracing with ductile panels by incorporating energy dissipating devices to act as fuses, which can yield and dissipate energy ...

In this paper, the stress-related damping ratio formula of box girder with corrugated steel webs is introduced. Using response spectrum method, an iterative algorithm is proposed to calculate the seismic response and the stressrelated damping ratio under different seismic intensities. Based on a simply supported composite box girder bridge with corrugated steel webs, the stress-related damping ...

Computerized seismic prospecting is an echo-ranging technique usually targeted at accurate mapping of oil and gas reservoirs. In seismic surveys an impulsive source, often an explosive charge, located at the earth's surface generates elastic waves which propagate in the subsurface; these waves are scattered by the earth's geological discontinuities back to the surface, where an array of receive...

Because seismic activity within mid-continents is usually much lower than that along plate boundary zones, even small earthquakes can cause widespread concerns, especially when these events occur in the source regions of previous large earthquakes. However, these small earthquakes may be just aftershocks that continue for decades or even longer. The recent seismicity in the Tangshan region in N...

Our project describes a simplified method that allow obtaining the fundamental period of vibration, lateral displacement, shear force and bending moment through a set of equations, obtaining for all cases studied an error below 10%.The results obtained in this study were applied to a total of 9 real chimneys (4 of steel and 5 of reinforced concrete) built in Chile, with the objective of calibra...

Bridge structure performance estimation under a seismic hazard can be significantly influenced by the level of modelling detail within the simulation of the soil structure interaction phenomenon. As the computational demands of such estimation greatly restricts the implementation of a detailed truncated FEM simulation of the semiinfinite soil domain, the Kelvin – Voigt Model within the framewor...

Yield Point Spectra are used to indicate the influence of Peffects on the lateral strengths associated with constant ductility demands. The intensity of Peffects is represented by a new index, termed the effective height, heff. This representation is useful for performance-based seismic design, because the effective height may be estimated accurately using information that is available early in...

This paper presents a study to statistically characterize the joint earthquake-snow hazard and subsequently develop maximum inter-story drift fragility curves for a series of archetype woodframe structures. Of particular focus are structures built in heavy-snow regions where seismic design may govern (and hence the roof snow load contributes additional seismic mass). While load standards such a...

This research presents the impact of base fixity on seismic analysis including soil-structure interaction (SSI) considering linear and nonlinear soil-foundation interface conditions. A set of inelastic time history analyses using a yielding singledegree-of-freedom structural system with different fixity conditions at the base are used. The base fixity configurations considered are: 1) fixed-bas...

Recent research efforts have focused on the development of performance based seismic design methodologies for structures. However, the seismic design rules prescribed in the current Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) is based largely on force based design principles. Although a set of performance requirements (performance objectives) for different return period earthquake events have b...