Alaska Bridge Bent Pushover Software, including Concrete Confinement

AIDC project number: 107013

PI(s):

Michael Scott (OSU)

Funding:
  • US Department of Transportation (RITA)
  • Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
  • Start Date: Aug 3, 2007
  • End Date: Dec 31, 2009

Project Summary

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is developing new recommendations for bridge designs that can better withstand earthquakes. These new guidelines use pushover analysis, a technique where a computer model of a structure is subjected to increasing lateral loading until its components fail. Pushover analysis is an effective way to highlight any weakness in a bridge's performance under earthquake conditions. However, there is no single, easy-to-use program available to design engineers. No programs focus on the bridge bent design (sometimes called a pier design) most commonly used in Alaska, where steel shells encase reinforced concrete columns to improve seismic performance. This project developed software customized for pushover analysis of Alaska-style bridge bents.