Seismic Performance of Integral Abutment Highway Bridges in Illinois

The seismic behavior of integral abutment bridges (IABs) is of particular interest in southern Illinois, where proximity to the New Madrid Seismic Zone may create significant ground motion accelerations during an earthquake. IABs are common in modern bridge construction due to their lack of expansion joints between the superstructure and abutment, which leads to decreased environmental damage at the abutment seat when compared to stub abutment bridges. However, elimination of expansion joints can also lead to development of complex soil-structure-interaction limit states at the abutment and its foundation when an IAB is subjected to lateral loads. This report examines the seismic behavior of typical IABs in southern Illinois and develops feedback and recommendations for improving IAB seismic designs. This is accomplished through modeling IABs as a whole bridge system, subjecting the models to representative ground motions, monitoring the behavior of key IAB components, using the monitored results to form a comprehensive view of seismic behavior, and employing the developed knowledge to form recommendations for improving IAB seismic performance. IAB models are developed in OpenSees through nonlinear modeling of multiple components, as well as the connections between components, representing typical IAB designs for Illinois, and are then subjected to 1000-year return period hazard ground motions developed specifically for southern Illinois. Incremental dynamic analyses are also performed. IABs of varying superstructure materials, span configurations, bearing layouts, pier heights, and foundation soil conditions are dynamically analyzed using the sets of developed ground motions. Damage to pier columns is especially prominent in IABs with shorter piers and longer abutment-to-abutment spans, while abutment foundation damage in terms of yielding, local buckling, and rupture of the piles frequently occurs in many IAB variants. Recommendations on design modifications to improve the seismic behavior of IABs by limiting the level of damage to these components are also investigated through modifying elastomeric bearing side retainer strength, fixed bearing strength, pier column size, and backfill contributions.IDOT-R27-133Ope