ANALYTICAL STUDY FOR EVALUATION OF DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF RUBBER CUSHION IN BRIDGE RESTRAINERS

Abstract

Bridge restrainers are installed to prevent bridge girders from falling when a large earthquake comes. The design load is determined by only deadweight of the bridge girder. And, collision velocity and cushioning effect of rubbers aren't considered in the design load. On the other hand, weight-drop tests are conducted to evaluate the dynamic performance of bridge restrainers. But, it is evident that weight-drop tests couldn't imitate real bridge mass size. So, authors attempted to imitate the dynamic behavior of bridge restrainers by using non-linear analysis. As a result, it is presented the way of simulating the dynamic behavior of bridge restrainers including cushioning rubber on experimental comparison.