Abstract
This study addresses the simultaneous influence of soil-structure interaction, non-uniform ground excitations and pounding on the required seating length of bridge girders. The recently published Japanese design specification for bridge girder relative displacement and the recommendation of many current design codes for mitigating pounding and unseating potential are also discussed. The spatially varying ground excitation is simulated stochastically using an empirical spectrum and coherency loss function. The ground is a half-space or a soft layer of different thickness on hard soil. The results show that non-uniform ground motions together with soft subsoil can strongly amplify required seating length and pounding forces, and consequently increase unseating and pounding damage potential of bridge girders.
