Behavior of BP-A Bearings for Road Bridges Under the Horizontial Force

Abstract

Four BP-A bearings for road bridges were investigated based on monotonous tests and design calculations with the purpose to study the ultimate capacity and damage behavior under the horizontal force. As the results, it was confirmed that horizontal resistance characteristics of BP-A bearings were dominated by the shear key, the stoppers of the upper shoe and the lower shoe. Ultimate capacity obtained from the tests were 2.74-4.54 times of the designed capacity. A simple method for estimating the ultimate capacity of BP-A bearings by using the ultimate capacity of the dominant members was also proposed.