• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2016

The 750 m long "De Bosset" bridge in the Cephalonia Island of Western Greece, being the area with the highest seismicity in Europe, was constructed in 1830 by successive stone arches and stiff block-type piers. The bridge suffered extensive damages during past earthquakes, such as the strong M7.2 earthquake of 1953, followed by poorly-designed reconstruction schemes with reinforced concrete. In 2005, a multidisciplinary project for the seismic assessment and restoration of the "De Bosset" bridge was undertaken under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The proposed retrofitting scheme combining soil improvement, structural strengthening and reconstruction of the deteriorated masonry sections was recently applied on site. Design of the rehabilitation measures and assessment of the pre- and post-interventions seismic response of the bridge were based on detailed in-situ and laboratory tests, providing foundation soil and structural material properties. In-situ inspection of the rehabilitated bridge following the strong M6.1 and M6.0 Cephalonia earthquakes of January 26th and February 3rd 2014, respectively, revealed no damages or visible defects. The efficiency of the bridge retrofitting is also proved by a preliminary performance analysis of the bridge under the recorded ground motion induced by the above earthquakes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.897-919
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• 2015

In this study, the effects of ground shocks due to explosive loads on the dynamic response of historical masonry bridges are investigated by using the multi-point shock response spectrum method. With this purpose, different charge weights and distances from the charge center are considered for the analyses of a masonry bridge and depending on these parameters frequency-varying shock spectra are determined and applied to each support of the two-span masonry bridge. The net blast induced ground motion consists of air-induced and direct-induced ground motions. Acceleration time histories of blast induced ground motions are obtained depending on a deterministic shape function and a stationary process. Shock response spectrums determined from the ground shock time histories are simulated using BlastGM software. The results obtained from uniform and multi-point response spectrum analyses cases show that significant differences take place between the uniform and multi-point blast-induced ground motions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.161-168
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• 2005

The influence of spandrel wall and fill above the extrados on the structural behavior and load capacity of stone masonry arch bridges has not been thoroughly studied yet. One can estimate the structural characteristics and behavior of stone masonry structures by measuring the dynamic characteristics. To investigate the influence of spandrel wall and fill on the dynamic characteristics of historic stone masonry arch bridges, on-site free vibration tests were performed for 5 stone bare arches with no spandrel wall and backfill. And the natural frequencies of those arches were compared with the natural frequencies of 18 stone arch bridges with spandrel walls. Experimental results show from the experiments show that the presence of spandrel wall and fill may increase the natural frequency of arch bridge because the stiffness increase exceeds the mass increase due to spandrel wall.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.271-282
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• 2020

The preservation of historic masonry-arch railway bridges is of paramount importance due to their economic benefits. These bridges which belong to past centuries may nowadays be expected to carry loads higher than those for which they were designed. Such an increase in loads may be because of increase in transportation speed or in the capacity of freight-wagons. Anyway, adequate increase in their load-carrying-capacity through structural-strengthening is required. Moreover, the increasing costs of material/construction urge engineers to optimize their designs to obtain the minimum-cost one. This paper proposes a novel numerical optimization method to minimize the costs associated with strengthening of masonry-arch railway bridges. To do so, the stress/displacement responses of Sahand-Goltappeh bridge are assessed under ordinary train pass as a case study. For this aim, 3D-Finite-Element-Model is created and calibrated using experimental test results. Then, it is strengthened such that following goals are achieved simultaneously: (1) the load-carrying-capacity of the bridge is increased; (2) the structural response of the bridge is reduced to a certain limit; and, (3) the costs needed for such strengthening are minimized as far as possible. The results of the case study demonstrate the applicability/superiority of the proposed approach. Some economic measures are also recommended to further reduce the total strengthening cost.