Seismic Performance Evaluation of Urban Bridge using Static Nonlinear Procedure, Case Study: Hafez Bridge

AbstractBridges as key elements in the lifeline of each country or urban transportation play a fundamental role economically, politically and militarily. The possibility of severe damage to bridges that are subjected to earthquake leads to the necessity of seismic evaluation of existing bridges, particularly those which have been either designed regardless of earthquake effects or according to moderate earthquake-resistant consideration. The assessment of safety and stability of these bridges while passing increasingly traffic is of high importance in their seismic performance. In this study, an urban steel bridge in metropolitan Tehran which is accounted for as an important structure in the city transportation is studied using nonlinear static procedure at two hazard levels. The hazard levels were obtained by the use of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). Three-dimensional model of the mentioned bridge is developed and analyzed using nonlinear static procedure (NSP) thus its seismic performance is evaluated accordingly. The results show the vulnerability of this steel bridge during earthquake and the necessity of retrofitting for improving its seismic behaviour