Title:
Investigation of Performance of Bridge Abutment Fills in 1994 Northridge Earthquake
Author(s):
R. V. Siddharthan and M. El-Gamal
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
187
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
69-88
Keywords:
abutments; bridges; calibration; deformation; earthquakes
DOI:
10.14359/5595
Date:
6/1/1999
Abstract:
The characteristics of 1994 Northridge motions with respect to permanent slope deformations are consistent with much larger world-wide database of excitations. The paper describes the application of a recently developed procedure to compute abutment fill settlements caused by earthquakes to predict fill settlements. The study used 58 excitations from 1994 Northbridge earthquake recorded in the free field with acceleration higher than .1g to investigate the influence of vertical acceleration on permanent abutment fill settlements. It was found that the influence of vertical accelerations is insignificant. The comparison between predicted and observed abutment fill settlements aft4r the 1994 Northbridge earthquake using data from 18 bridge sites near the epicentral area has been reported. The study indicates that the existing computational model yields conservative estimates and it may be used as a first approximation for evaluating abutment fill settlements in moderate to large earthquakes.