Evaluation of the seismic responses of a long-span cable-stayed bridge located in complex terrain based on an SHM-oriented model

Long-span cable-stayed bridges often have multiple supports separated by certain distances. If a long-span bridge is located in a complex terrain with different local soil conditions, the spatial variability may result in quantitative and qualitative differences in seismic responses compared with those produced by synchronous motion at all supports. To conduct such a multi-support excitation analysis of a long-span bridge, the ground motion excitations at different supports of the bridge are traditionally reproduced using the unconditional simulation technique, which cannot reflect the realistic propagation of ground motions at the site where the bridge is located. In addition, the finite element model of a cable-stayed bridge cannot be calibrated before conducting the seismic analysis. Heretofore the difference in seismic responses between the FE model and an alternative model has not been investigated systematically. Furthermore, seismic response analyses of long-span bridges using in situ ground motions are very rare.
Therefore, this paper proposes an analytical approach for conducting the seismic response analysis of a long-span cable-stayed bridge subjected to non-uniform ground motions based on the updated FE model with the aid of a bridge structural health monitoring (SHM) system. The model updating approach is developed on the basis of the static and dynamic sensitivity analyses in order to establish the SHM-oriented model. The excitations at all the supports of the bridge undergo conditional simulation based on the measured ground motions at limited points.
A real long-span cable-stayed bridge is taken as an example to examine the feasibility and validity of the proposed approach. The observations made indicate that the seismic responses based on the SHM-oriented model are different to those based on the original FE model. The non-uniform seismic responses are substantially different from those of the uniform seismic responses.