Assessment of the Seismic Vulnerability of Wall Pier Supported Highway Bridges on Priority Emergency Routes in Southern Illinois

257 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006.Typical structural characteristics were determined from a sample of 22 southern Illinois priority emergency route wall pier supported bridges. A summary of these characteristics is given. These structural details were used to construct two sets of three-dimensional nonlinear numerical models, one to perform nearly 200 pushover analyses, and one two perform nearly 100 dynamic time-history analyses (required for fragility curve construction). Details concerning the analytical sub-models used for representing the various bridge components in these models are given, as is information concerning the structural limit states that were considered in the analyses. Results and conclusions stemming from the pushover and fragility analyses are presented, including details about how wall pier bridge structural variations affect those failures that are critical and those bridge categories that are most vulnerable. The theoretical underpinnings of the fragility procedure implemented are highlighted. In addition, the liquefaction fragility analysis conducted is detailed, with results and conclusions presented. Finally, implications of these findings for the southern Illinois priority route network are discussed.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD