Nonlinear Static Analysis for Seismic Performance Evaluation of Multi-Span Bridges Considering Effect of Equivalent SDOF Methods

The capacity spectrum method (CSM) can be used to simply estimate the maximum displacement response of the nonlinear structures. To evaluate seismic performance of multi-span bridges using the CSM, the representative response for structural system should be derived from the multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) responses by using the equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (ESDOF) method. The ESDOF method is used to calculate the capacity curve of the structural system from the pushover curves of all piers or structural members estimated by the pushover analysis. In order to evaluate an accuracy of ESDOF methods used in the CSM, the maximum displacements estimated by the CSM incorporating the several ESDOF methods are compared to those by the inelastic time-history analysis for several artificial earthquakes corresponding to the design spectrum.