Bridge Bearing:

Bridge bearings are structural equipment or devices installed

between bridge substructure and superstructure to transfer the
applied load including earthquake loads, wind loads, traffic loads,
and superstructure self-weight.

Types of Bridge Bearings:

Different types of bearings for bridges include:

 Sliding bearings

 Rocker and pin bearings

 Roller bearings

 Elastomeric bearings

 Curved bearings

 Pot bearings

 Disk bearings
Sliding Bearings for Bridges:
Sliding bearing consist of two metal plates, commonly stainless-
steel plates, that slide relative to each other and hence makes room
for translational movement and lubricating material between them
as illustrated.

A friction force is generated in sliding bearing and it is imposed on

substructure, superstructure and sliding bearing itself. So, it may be
required to provide lubricant such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
to decline generated friction.It is specified by ASSHTO that sliding
bearing cannot be used unless the bridge span is smaller than 15m.
This is because sliding bearing cannot be purely used if the bridge
experiences rotation movement.However, the span restriction for
sliding bearing utilization can be disregarded when it is used in
combination with other bearing types.

Rocker and Pin Bearings for Bridge Structures:

Rocker is an expansion bearing composed of curved surface at the
bottom, which accommodate translational movement and a pin at
the top makes room for rotation movement as illustrated.
Pin bearing is a fixed bearing that make room for rotation movement
through the application of steel pin. It has similar structure and
component like rocker bearing apart from the bottom of pin bearing
which is flat and fixed to the concrete pier, as can be observed in
Figure-4.

Both rocker and pin bearings are mainly employed in steel bridge
structure. Rocker and pin bearing should be considered when the
bridge movement is adequately known and described, since such
bearings can make rooms for both translational and rotational
movements in one direction only.

These bearings are likely to suffer deterioration and corrosion, so it is

necessary to conduct regular inspection and maintenance.

Roller Bearings for Bridges:

Roller bearing can be used in the construction of reinforced concrete
and steel bridge structure. There are two main configurations
including single roller bearing which is composed of one roller placed
between two plates and multiple roller bearing that consist of several
rollers installed between two plates.The former can accommodate
both rotation and translation movement in longitudinal direction and
it is cheap to manufacture but its vertical load capacity is limited.In
contrary, the latter can make room for translation movement only
and rotation movement can be accommodated if rollers are
combined with pin bearing. Multiple roller bearings are expensive
and support considerably large vertical loads.Regular inspection and
rehabilitation should be conducted since roller bearing are
susceptible to corrosion and damages.

Elastomeric Bearings for Bridge Structures:

It consists of elastomer manufactured from synthetic or natural
rubber and can take both translation and rotation movements
through elastomer deformation. The ability of elastomer to carry
large vertical loads is because of reinforcement provision that
prevents lateral bulging of elastomer.
There are number of elastomeric bearing pads classified based on
types of reinforcements used. For example, steel reinforced, plain,
fiberglass reinforced and cotton duck reinforced elastomeric bearing
pads.

Strength and response of each type is different, steel reinforced

elastomeric bearing is the strongest one and plain elastomeric pad is
the weakest.

Elastomeric bearing is neither expensive nor requires considerable

maintenance, that is why it the most desired bearing type.
Elastomeric bearing and its application in bridge structure.

Curved Bearings for Bridges:

It consists of two curved plate that match each other as shown in
Figure 8. If curved bearing is cylindrical, then it only accommodates
rotation movements. However, both rotation and translational
movements can be dealt with if curved bearing is spherical.

Due to the fact that both gravity loads and curved geometry generate
lateral resistance against and consequently lateral movement would
be limited, that is why polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) slider is
adhered to the bearings in order to make rooms for lateral
movements.
Pot Bearings for Bridge Structures:
As shown in Figure-9, pot bearing consists of elastomeric disk
confined in a pot, steel piston that is properly tailored into the pot
wall and flat sealing rings which keeps elastomeric inside the pot.

Pot bearing can support considerable vertical loads and it is

commonly transferred through steel piston to the elastomeric disc
which is almost incompressible. As far as lateral load is concerned, it
is transferred as the steel pistol moves toward pot wall.

Translational movement is limited in pure pot bearing that is why

PTFE are introduced to the sliding surface to make rooms for
translation movement.

Disk Bearings for Bridges:

Rotation movement is accommodated through the deformation of
elastomer whereas the translation movement is considered through
the application of PTFE slider.

The utilized elastomer should be adequately hard to support vertical

loads without suffering large deformations and sufficiently flexible to
allow rotational movement.

Both vertical loads and lateral loads are supported by elastomeric

disk and metal ring in the center of the bearing respectively.