Recorded and modeled response of the Thorndon Overbridge during multiple earthquakes

This article presents the recorded and modeled strong-motion response of a long (1.35 km) bridge located in Wellington, New Zealand during multiple sequential earthquakes. These were some of the first recordings of this kind for a New Zealand highway bridge and add to the limited database of bridge superstructure strong-motion responses recorded worldwide. The bridge experienced little damage during the earthquakes; however, analysis of the recorded responses showed the fundamental period of the bridge varied by up to 15% across these events, highlighting the system softening that can develop without any significant structural damage. Numerical models of a single bridge pier using a p-y spring foundation modeling approach were able to represent the changes in the recorded bridge pier response across the events based on multiple response metrics, suggesting that system softening was primarily due to nonlinear soil response and concrete cracking. A sensitivity analysis showed that concrete strength and the characteristics of the upper soil layers had the largest influence on the model response. Given the presence of several strong-motion stations in close vicinity to the bridge, the sensitivity to ground-motion input was also investigated. This was shown to have a more significant influence on the modeled response than the other modeling uncertainties evaluated here, with the variability in estimated deformations highlighting the difficulties involved in the back analysis of the response of structures.