The seismic responses of girder bridges with novel sliding lead rubber bearings

Based on the commonly used lead rubber bearing (LRB) and sliding rubber bearing (SRB), a novel sliding lead rubber bearing (SLRB) is introduced. The mechanical properties of the three types of bearings were investigated by experiment. After that, a simply supported girder bridge with a 1/4 scale ratio was designed and fabricated, and the dynamic characteristics and seismic response of the bridge equipped with the above three types of bearings were studied. Results show that the girder's acceleration response has been effectively reduced by setting bearings only for relatively high earthquake intensity. Compared with LRB and SRB, SLRB works with more compositive seismic isolation effect. The "slide" action of the telflon-stainless-steel interface in SLRB can significantly reduce the acceleration response of girder, while the relative displacement between the pier and girder for this novel bearing is not increased due to the occurrence of collision in the bearing.