DAMAGE OF LATERAL DISPLACEMENT CONFINING DEVICES OF BRIDGES CAUSED BY THE 2016 KUMAMOTO EARTHQUAKE AND ESTIMATION OF FAILURE MECHANISM

Abstract

 In the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, two severe ground shakings occurred consecutively on April 14 and 16, and caused extensive damage to bridges. Among them, it should be paid strong attention that numerous lateral displacement confining devices were suffered sever damage. Their function was to constrain a superstructure from developing displacement if a bearing support is destroyed and to prevent collapse of the superstructure. However, brittle damages were observed in the devices themselves or the anchorage portions, and one bridge was collapsed due to the mainshock because the device had been damaged due to the foreshock. In this paper, the seismic analysis of the collapse bridge was conducted to estimate the pounding force to the device, and the failure mechanism of the device was estimated.