The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Multiple-support response spectrum analysis of the Golden Gate Bridge

Nakamura, Yutaka; Der Kiureghian, Armen; Liu, Wen David

UCB/EERC-93/05, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1993-05, 75 pages (520.6/N242/1993)

The newly developed Multiple-Support Response Spectrum (MSRS) method is reviewed and applied to the analysis of the Golden Gate Bridge. The MSRS method properly accounts for the effects of wave passage and incoherence of the support motions, the effect of local site conditions, and the effects of correlation between the support motions and between the dynamic modes of the structure. The Golden Gate Bridge is a three-span suspension bridge. A 3-dimensional model with a total of 4,074 degrees of freedom and 6 pairs of support points is used for the response analysis. Site-specific response spectra consistent with a set of artificially generated accelerograms are used for the three components of ground motion at each support point. The mean peak values of selected displacement and bending moment responses of the two tower structures of the bridge are computed by the MSRS method, including the first 100 modes and using an appropriate wave velocity and a coherency function for the region. Parametric studies demonstrate the effect of wave passage and incoherence on the dynamic and pseudo-static components of the response. The computed results by the MSRS method are compared with values computed by time history analysis using the artificial time histories.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-93-05.pdf (2 MB)