Application of Viscous Damper and Laminated Rubber Bearing Pads for Bridges in Seismic Regions

Normally, Laminated Rubber Bearing Pads (LRBPs) are directly placed between girders and piers and their role is to provide the bridge span with horizontal movement, and to transmit the gravity loads from the deck to the piers. Although not designed for seismic loads, they can act as a fuse, partially isolating the substructure from the superstructure and keeping the piers intact during earthquakes. However, recent investigations show that large relative displacement of superstructure against substructure caused by sliding at bearing (sliding between girders and LRBPs) can cause expansion joint failure or even bridge span collapse. Accordingly, proper restrainers should be selected to prevent large displacement. Among all types of restrainers, viscous dampers as passive energy dissipation devices have shown a great capacity in damping earthquake energy. This study investigates the effectiveness of a VD-LRBP system, a viscous damper in conjunction with LRBPs, in dissipating energy and reducing the displacement of the superstructure with reference to the substructure caused by sliding at bearing during a seismic event. A Finite Element (FE) model was first developed and validated using available experimental and numerical results. With the validated model, a 3D Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NTHA) was conducted on a reinforced concrete bridge model under various records of earthquakes using OpenSees, an open-source finite element software. The relative displacement histories were recorded for the bridge in two cases: 1- with only LRBPs and 2- with viscous dampers and LRBPs (VD-LRBP system). The results of this study show that applying viscous dampers can reduce the relative displacement of the superstructure with reference to the substructure for up to 60 percent. As importantly, it can also reduce the residual displacement after the earthquake to near zero.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effectiveness of a VD-LRBP system, a combination of viscous dampers and LRBPs, in reducing the displacement of the superstructure relative to the substructure caused by sliding at bearing during seismic events. The results show that applying viscous dampers can reduce relative displacement by up to 60% and effectively minimize residual displacement after an earthquake.