Effectiveness of the 30%-rule at predicting the elastic seismic demand on bridge columns subjected to bi-directional earthquake motions

The adequacy of the 30%-rule to predict the seismic demand on bridge columns subjected to bi-directional earthquake components is examined for two North American sites in areas of moderate seismic hazard: Montreal, in the east, and Vancouver, along the west coast. For both sites, historical and simulated ground motion earthquake ensembles are considered. Time history analyses were performed on generic bridge models to determine the critical response of the columns under pairs of orthogonal seismic ground motion time histories. Response spectrum analyses were also carried out to determine the maximum response in each direction and the critical response was estimated using the 30%-rule. The results show that the combination rule is tributary of both ground motion and bridge characteristics. Results also show that the 30%-rule as currently prescribed in codes leads to an adequate estimation of the bi-directional elastic seismic demand on regular bridge columns.