Uncertain seismic response and robustness analysis of isolated continuous girder bridges

Abstract

When calculating the seismic response of structures, conventional methods often neglect uncertainty and suffer from excessive computation. Although robustness metrics have been effective in evaluating structural safety, they are not suitable for isolated continuous girder bridges (ICGB). To address this issue, this paper introduces an uncertain seismic response and robustness assessment method tailored to ICGB: Firstly, the method considers uncertainty in material parameters and ground motion by constructing a data set using Monte Carlo simulation. Secondly, a genetic algorithm for parallel optimisation of radial basis function neural network (GAPO-RBFNN) is trained to predict the seismic responses of the bridges. Thirdly, a robustness metric specifically designed for bridges is derived and applied to bridge. Finally, the proposed robustness metric is validated on lead rubber bearing (LRB) and shape memory alloy-lead rubber bearing (SMA-LRB) bridges. Results indicate that the GAPO-RBFNN model accurately approximates the mapping relationship between structural parameters and seismic response, with an average error of only 0.32% and a 70% reduction in computation time compared with traditional methods. Moreover, the new robustness metric overcomes the limitations of the dismantled member method and is applicable to bridge. The robustness of the SMA-LRB-ICGB, strengthened by SMA, is improved, providing evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed robustness metric.