1) Msc.

Aida Tasellari
2) Prof. Niko Pojani

1. Introduction
2. DBD-Fundamental considerations:
Design process for longitudinal response of bridges
Design process for transverse response of bridges

3. DDBD of single-degree-of-freedom: bridge

structures
Numerical example

4. Conclusions

This article regards the newest approaches in the

Seismic Engineering field, introduced under the
already known label
Displacement Based Design DBD
A displacement-based seismic design procedure for
SDOF structures has been presented, with example
design of a concrete bridge column

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Force Based Design (FBD) - Displacement Based Design(DBD)

Conventional seismic design, as employed in codes of practice, is entirely
force-based
The reasons for this situation are more historical than scientific
The primary input to the process is a set of forces
In traditional FBD, the period of vibration of a structure is estimated, and
a design acceleration response spectra is entered to determine the elastic
force demand of the structure
In the FBD procedures the displacement limit are checked at the end of
the design process, or are considered in terms of ductility demands which
are treated indirectly through the use of behavior factors that modify
design forces

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Why DBD?

Under seismic action, displacements provide a more fundamental

expression of structural response than forces, and the structural design
process should be oriented accordingly
Since damage of structures subjected to earthquakes is certainly expressed
in deformations (strain at fibers, curvatures at sections, rotations at
members and drift at story levels), DB approaches are conceptually more
appealing
Displacement-based design inverts the process. Here, the primary design
quantity is a target displacement
Furthermore, DBD offers the ability to explicitly control the displacement
demand in each member rather than assigning a single, force-based
behavior factor to entire structure.
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 Fundamental considerations
The seismic design methods for bridges involved in the current Design
Codes are also entirely forced-based
This concept and the design produced from it, in general does not
guarantee that the bridge performance when subjected to the earthquake
fulfills the expected design performance
Mostly used methods for the displacement based design of bridges are:
1) Methods based on the substitute structures
2) Methods based on the non-linear capacity of structures

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 Pier design displacement

While in buildings it is normal for the design displacement to be set by
drift limits, this is rarely the case for bridge piers.
Occasionally there may be absolute design displacement limits:
normally related to allowable relative displacements between
superstructure and abutments
material strain limits will govern the design displacement
P- moments may also limit design displacement

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 Pier yield displacement depends on:

1- the degree of fixity provided at the pier top and bottom
2- the pier height and
3- the section yield curvature

Section yield curvature

The form of the equations governing yield curvature for different

section shapes are given below:

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 Possible fixity conditions for longitudinal response of bridge piers

In each case the yield displacement may be defined as:

where Lsp is the total strain penetration and C1 is a constant dependet on end
fixity.
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 Displacement profile shape for tranverse response of bridges

(strongly dependent on the degree of the restraint provided at the abutments)

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* This design process is elaborated by Chopra (2001)

* It is proposed for concrete bridges with superstructure constructed of
simply-supported spans with rotational flexibility at the movement joints

The main issues:

Determination of the design displacement and ductility of the piers

Determination of an appropriate inelastic displacement response spectra, to
obtain the period and initial stiffness
* With the yield displacement and initial stiffness known, the yield force can be
determined.
* This method thereby designs the column to a target drift level and acceptable
plastic rotation

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 Inelastic displacement spectra

* To implement the existing displacement-based design procedure the wellknown constant-ductility spectra is needed
* A constant-ductility spectrum for an elastoplastic hysteretic system is a plot
of pseudo-acceleration Ay, pseudo-velocity Vy and displacement Dy versus the
initial elastic period Tn for selected values of
* It is established by dividing the elastic design spectrum by appropriate
ductility-dependent factors depend on Tn
* An inelastic design spectrum, constructed by the procedure of Newmark and
Hall is plotted in Figure below.

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Construction
of inelastic
design
spectrum by
NewmarkHall
procedure

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1.ESTIMATE:
-Yield displacement uy
-DETERMINE
-Acceptable plastic
rotation p at the
column base

2.DETERMINE:
-Design displacement: um = uy + H
-Design ductility: = um / uy

3.DETERMINE: Tn from
deformation design spectrum

Repeat steps
2 through 6
4.DETERMINE: Lateral stiffness k
7.Uy computed
in step 6,
complies with uy
determined in
step 1

Iterations are necessary

NO

?
A satisfactory design has been
produced

YES

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5.DETERMINE: The required

yield strength Fy =k uy
6. SELECT member sizes and
detailing to provide the strength
determined from in step 5
-CALCULATE initial elastic
stiffness k and yield deformation
uy=fyk

 The proposed design procedure is evaluated by applying it in the

design of a concrete bridge pier
Bridge Description
* The bridge is a continuous concrete box girder bridge with 3 spans 30 m in

length, simply-supported with rotational flexibility at the movement joints. It is

straight in plan with a total length of 90 m.

* The box superstructure is supported by 2 identical bents. Each bent consists

of a singular column 1.5 m in diameter and 9 m in height
* The columns are supported on strong soil, and a value of peak ground
accelerations ag equal to 0.5g is assumed

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Superstructure cross-section
Bridge pier column

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The single-column bent is

simply modeled as a SDOF
system in the transverse
direction

The step-by-step procedure described earlier is now implemented for the column
design. The results are summarized in Table 1

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The
predicted
maximum
deformation

The
deformation
demand

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 The procedure converged after five iterations giving a column design with t =
5.5%. This column has an initial stiffness kcr =238.6 kN/cm and lateral yield
strength fy =1907 kN.
Furthermore, the plastic rotation demand is identical to the acceptable value
of 0.02 radians that was imposed on the design.
The predicted maximum deformation of 7.99 cm is equal to the deformation
demand.

CLEARLY the proposed procedure has produced a

satisfactory design.

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In the article fundamental concepts of the DBD for structures in

genaral, and bridgs in particular were given
A displacement-based seismic design procedure for SDOF structures,
with example design of a concrete bridge column has been presented
With the aid of example, it has been demonstrated that DDBD method
(1) is very simple to be used for SDOF structures design
(2) provides a structural design that fulfills the expected
design performance

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THANK YOU!
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