STUDY ON DAMAGE CAUSED TO COLUMNS OF RC VIADUCTS BY THE 2011 OFF THE PACIFIC COAST OF TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

 This paper describes the damage to RC rigid frame viaducts caused by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Observations were made to investigate the severity of the damage to RC viaducts and the mechanism of the damage. And, authors conducted the static non-linear analysis based on push-over analysis, by taking into consideration that the ductility of columns can be evaluated by response acceleration in case of elastic behavior.
 As a result of observations, we found that the seismic damage caused to RC viaduct columns was mainly located in the vicinity of the upper edge of columns. And, the results of numerical analysis indicated that the damaged RC columns received the seismic action upto 1120 gal in the cross section of rigid frame.