Historical masonry bridges generally consist of arches, spandrels walls, backfills, piers and foundations. Under the effects such as earthquake, flood and wind, the most vulnerable structural elements of bridges against out-of-plane seismic motions are spandrel walls. Increasing length and height of spandrel walls increases the vulnerability of the bridge under loads in vertical and transverse directions. The aim of this research is to examine the in-plane and out-of-plane non-linear structural responses of the spandrel walls of a historical masonry bridge. For this purpose, a historical masonry arch bridge with built in 1787 in Bartın-Turkey was chosen as the subject structure. The 3D finite element model and nonlinear seismic analyses of the bridge were performed with ABAQUS. Initially, the backfill-spandrels and backfill-arch interfaces of the bridge were modeled with and without cohesive contact. The non-linear material responses of the spandrel walls and the arch units were defined using Concrete Damage Plasticity material model and those of the backfill unit were defined with Mohr-Coulomb material model. The east-west component of 17 August 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake’s acceleration records was used in the analyses. The east-west acceleration component was applied on the bridge in-plane and out-of-plane directions during the time-history non-linear seismic analysis of the bridge. The results obtained from the analyses with and without the consideration of cohesive contact were compared to evaluate the seismic responses of the spandrel walls. As a result, cohesive interface behavior was found to significantly affect the spandrel wall response under in- plane and out-of-plane seismic forces.

Yapı zemin etkileşimi yapıların deprem etkileri altındaki davranışlarının doğru olarak belirlenmesinde önemli rol oynamaktadır. Geleneksel tasarım çalışmalarında yapının tabandan ankastre olduğu kabulü sıklıkla kullanılmakta ve yapı-zemin etkileşimi dikkate alınmamaktadır. Bununla birlikte, özellikle esnek zemin ortamlarında bulunan tarihi yığma yapılarda deprem yer hareketleri yapı davranışını önemli derecede etkileyebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada, tarihi yığma bir minarenin esnek ve ankastre mesnetlenme durumları için deprem davranışları, yatay ve yatay+düşey yer hareket bileşenleri için araştırılmaktadır. Çalışmada, kayma dalgası hızları sırasıyla 1000, 270 ve 90 m/s olan üç farklı zemin türü kullanılmıştır. Üç boyutlu sonlu eleman modelinin oluşturulmasında minarede tetrahedral, zemin ortamında hexahedral sonlu ve sonsuz elemanlar kullanılmıştır. Oluşturulan sonlu eleman modeli, Operasyonel Modal Analiz Yöntemi deneysel sonuçlarına göre kalibre edilmiştir. Kalibre edilen sonlu eleman modeli kullanılarak minare-zemin etkileşim sisteminin yatay, yatay+düşey yer hareketleri altında lineer deprem davranışları, farlı zemin ve ankastre mesnetlenme durumları için elde edilerek karşılaştırılmıştır.

Expansion joints render bridge structures highly vulnerable to damage during strong ground motions. Failures of expansion joints triggered by earthquakes not only jeopardize the post-earthquake serviceability of the bridge but also have a significant impact on the bridgeâs overall seismic performance. Despite extensive investigations and efforts to integrate these measures into design specifications aimed at mitigating the consequences of relative movements between adjacent bridge spans, major earthquakes have still revealed instances of damage related to expansion joints. On 6 February 2023, strong earthquake sequences occurred in KahramanmaraÅ, Turkey, with magnitudes of M7.7 and M7.6. The fault lines and epicenters of these shallow earthquakes were near the city and town centers and caused severe structural damage to buildings and infrastructures. There are approximately 1000 railway and highway bridges in the earthquake-affected region. Although both highway and railway bridges have generally performed well, some bridges experienced structural damage during the KahramanmaraÅ earthquakes. A large number of damage on the bridges is due to pounding and opening relative movements in expansion joints. This paper presents a comprehensive seismic evaluation of expansion joint failure mechanisms on bridges without viscous dampers during the 2023 KahramanmaraÅ earthquake sequences and an in-depth investigation into the seismic performance of bridge expansion joints equipped with viscous dampers and shock transmission unit devices are implemented utilizing the strong ground motion data collected throughout the earthquake sequences. It can be stated that the near-fault induced significant directivity and fling effects, resulting in notable velocity pulses and permanent tectonic deformations, and that these effects contributed to the failures of expansion joints, viscous damper devices, pot bearings, and shear keys.