Effect of soil flexibility on bridges subjected to spatially varying excitations

Pounding is a major cause of bridge damage during earthquakes. In an extreme situation, it can even contribute to the unseating of bridge girders. Long-span bridges will inevitably experience spatially varying ground motions. Soil-structure interaction (SSI) may play a significant role in the structural response of these structures. The objective of this research is to experimentally investigate the effect of spatially varying ground motions on the response of a three-segment bridge considering SSI and pounding. To incorporate SSI, the model was placed on sand contained in sandboxes. The sandboxes were fabricated using soft rubber in order to minimise the rigid wall effect. The spatially varying ground motion inputs were simulated based on the New Zealand design spectra for soft soil, shallow soil and strong rock conditions, using an empirical coherency loss function. The results show that with pounding, SSI can amplify the pier bending moments and the relative opening displacements.