Seismic performance of bridge joints: Influence of gap distance on structural poundings

Date

2025-8

Author

Gökçe, Yahya

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

683
views

0
downloads

Cite This

Providing a uniform gap between adjacent spans of a bridge can lead to pounding between structural components during earthquakes, and pounding is considered one of the primary causes of damage observed after seismic events. The gap distance between structures has a direct influence on the likelihood of pounding. Following the recent major earthquakes in Türkiye, which affected 11 provinces, investigations revealed that although no bridge collapses occurred, significant damage was observed due to insufficiently designed gap distances for non-uniform seismic movements. This study investigates the effect of gap distance on seismic-induced pounding to minimize the resulting structural damage to bridge components. Nonlinear time history analyses were conducted using the SAP2000 analysis program, based on earthquake records from the earthquakes that occurred in Türkiye in February 2023, for four different gap distances: 3 cm, 6 cm, 9 cm, and 12 cm. The primary objective of this study is to observe how pounding forces vary with different gap distances and to reveal the relationship between these parameters. As a result of analyses conducted using 20 different ground motion records, the threshold PGA values corresponding to the onset of pounding were identified as 0.22 g, 0.24 g, 0.35 g, and 0.42 g for 3 cm, 6 cm, 9 cm, and 12 cm gap distances, respectively. In addition, the threshold PGV values, pounding probabilities, and axial force, shear force, and moment values in columns located at the gaps were also evaluated for each gap configuration.

Subject Keywords

Seismic Pounding, Bridge Structures, Gap Size, Structural Response, Nonlinear Time-History Analysis

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115639

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis