Seismic Performance of Taizhou Changjiang Highway Bridge

This paper presents the seismic performance of Taizhou Changjiang Highway Bridge in Jiangsu Province in China. The structure is a three-tower and two-span suspension bridge with two main spans of 1,080 m and two side spans of 390 m on each side. The three-dimensional finite element model for analysis of the bridge incorporated soil-structure interaction of the deep caissons and pile foundation was developed. The seismic analysis was performed using a time history approach of the entire structure including the foundation. The bridge was analyzed under two group of artifical earthquake waves, each group consisting of 3 acceleration time histories in correspondance to 2,500-year return period earthquakes and 975-year return period earthquakes, respectively. This work mainly discussed the influence of the different connections between superstructure and towers on the seismic responses of bridge structure.