Probabilistic Seismic Safety Assessment of Bridges Utilizing Measured Response Data

This paper presents the first effort in probabilistic seismic safety assessment of a structure using a correlated analysis model based on measured response data. An instrumented highway bridge is used to demonstrate the analysis procedure involving measuring ambient vibration, identifying modal parameters from the measured data, updating a preliminary analysis model (obtained from structural design drawings) utilizing the measured modal parameters, analyzing nonlinear response time histories of the structure under earthquake excitations, and finally evaluating probabilistic seismic safety of a structure. The seismic safety of a highway bridge can be more reliably evaluated by utilizing the measured data and correlated analysis model incorporating structural identification method.