Earthquake response of isolated cable-stayed bridges under spatially varying ground motions

A comprehensive investigation of the stochastic response of an isolated cable-stayed bridge subjected to spatially varying earthquake ground motion is performed. In this study, the Jindo Bridge built in South Korea is chosen as a numerical example. The bridge deck is assumed to be continuous from one end to the other end. The vertical movement of the stiffening girder is restrained and freedom of rotational movement on the transverse axis is provided for all piers and abutments. The longitudinal restraint is provided at the mainland pier. The A-frame towers are fixed at the base. To implement the base isolation procedure, the double concave friction pendulum bearings are placed at each of the four support points of the deck. Thus, the deck of the cable-stayed bridge is isolated from the towers using the double concave friction pendulum bearings which are sliding devices that utilize two spherical concave surfaces. The spatially varying earthquake ground motion is characterized by the incoherence and wave-passage effects. Mean of maximum response values obtained from the spatially varying earthquake ground motion case are compared for the isolated and non-isolated bridge models. It is pointed out that the base isolation of the considered cable-stayed bridge model subjected to the spatially varying earthquake ground motion significantly underestimates the deck and the tower responses.