Non-Linear Visco-elastic Pounding in Multi-span Simply Supported Isolated Bridges

The pounding phenomena in multi-span, simply supported, isolated bridges under earthquake ground motion is investigated. The piers are considered as elastic members and the abutments as rigid ones. An isolated bridge, taken from literature, is modeled as a multi-degree of freedom system by using Matlab program and Simulink. State-of-the-art reveals that study on non-linear visco-elastic pounding in seismically isolated, simply supported bridges is limited. The present paper explores this problem of pounding in bridges by considering the bearing isolations. Results show that pounding occurs more prominently at the locations where there are changes in structural properties such as the changes in height of pier or the presence of abutment.