Software for Bridge-Specific Fragility Analysis

Damage due to earthquake is commonly related to substantial direct and indirect losses, highlighting the need for damage detection and retrofit prioritization based on the results of the seismic risk assessment of the road network. In this context, numerous methodologies have been developed for the seismic vulnerability assessment of bridges for different levels of seismic hazard using fragility curves; analytical [1-3] as well as empirical [4] procedures have been put forward. In most cases, bridges within a road network have different structural and geometric properties depending on the site topography, the selected structural system and construction method, and the foundation soil. In the literature [1, 3, 5, 6, 7] bridges are classified into different categories, while, under the assumption that the seismic performance of bridges within the same class is similar, fragility curves of the representative -of each category-bridge are typically used for the seismic assessment of the bridge stock. The number of spans, number of columns (single or multicolumn bents), skewness, deck type, pier type and the pier-todeck connection, are some of the parameters considered in classification schemes available in the literature [1,3,5,6]. The effect of geometry (i.e. total deck length and width, pier height) on bridge fragility is fully recognized [1], [8], therefore different bridge geometries within the same category were studied in order to highlight the differences compared to the representative bridge [8,2]. The importance of bridge-specific fragility curves in the seismic assessment of road networks is presented in [9], highlighting the differences (lower and upper level) in fragility of bridges within the same category, compared to the representative bridge.