Development of a Steel Plate Shear Wall Bridge Pier System Conceived from a Multi-Hazard Perspective

Keywords: Steel plate shear walls (SPSW).  Multi-hazard designs.  Seismic excitation.  Damage.  Vehicle collisions.  Tsunamis.  Storm surges.  Blast loads.  Nonlinear finite element (FE) analyses.  Piers.  Columns.  Deformations.  Strength degradation.  Ductility demands.  Dynamic behaviors.

Abstract: This report introduces an innovative and integrative concept of a bridge box pier system that incorporates Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSW) to resist multiple hazards including earthquakes, vehicle collisions, tsunamis (and indirectly storm surges), and blasts. The proposed bridge concept simultaneously considers the constraints and demands for each hazard of interest. Simplified approaches for multi-hazard analyses and design are presented. Additionally, nonlinear finite element analyses are performed to better understand the system’s behavior. It is found that the system has adequate ductility, redundancy, and strength to resist each of the hazards. The system resists the seismic hazard through tension field action in the plates over the pier’s height. For collision hazards, the steel plates mitigate global deformations of the piers by developing tension field action. It is also observed that the proposed SPSW pier system has significant capacity against tsunami demands, where the pier’s plates are considered sacrificial and the columns remain essentially elastic. Barring local failure, the columns have the deformation capacity necessary to resist the deformations imposed by blast loads.