Failure modes of a seismically isolated continuous girder bridge

Reliable estimates of the failure modes of basic facilities, especially the seismically isolated bridge, are required for almost any form of analysis used for the seismic design and retrofit of bridge. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HZM) Bridge (HZMB), a seismically isolated continuous girder bridge with six spans, is a sea-crossing bridge, which is now under construction and will connect the Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Because the bridge is located in a highly active seismic zone, it is essential to evaluate the seismic performance of this bridge, in particular of its failure modes. Based on this practical engineering, this paper investigated the failure modes of isolated continuous girder bridge subjected to strong ground motions by developed weighted rank sum ratio method, in combination with developed 3D finite element bridge models. Firstly, three-dimensional finite element bridge models are developed and assessed using the incremental dynamic analysis method. Due to the flexibility of seismic isolation, both bending and rotational stiffness of isolation bearings are taken into account in the analysis. In addition, the rotational angle of bearings is found to be sensitive to seismic analytical results of isolated continuous girder bridges. Then, it conducted the nonlinear dynamic analysis on the HZM Bridge under sixteen strong earthquake records. Further, statistically significant failure modes and the weakest failure mode of this bridge are identified through the weighted rank sum ratio method. It resulted that, the final failure modes of this isolated continuous girder bridge are presented at the isolation bearings on a part of middle piers, at the isolation bearings on the abutments, at the isolation bearings at a side pier, and at the bottoms of side piers, respectively. The results of the failure mode analysis would greatly assist engineers to establish effective strategies for performance enhancement and seismic retrofit of bridge in the future.