Bridges

This paper will explore the opportunity to adopt 'low damage' seismic design technology in bridge design. Low damage designs offer a resilient and sustainable design option that provides a step change in seismic performance. However, to date these designs have not yet been widely implemented. Economic bridge designs often use a 'ductile' design approach for rare design events occurring at the Damage Control Limit State (DCLS) and beyond. While this design is efficient in material consumption, in the event of a DCLS earthquake or larger, the structure will require repair. Repairs could be extensive reinstatement works that cause long-term disruption, require extensive use of materials, and are potentially unable to guarantee the performance of the structure in future major earthquakes. 'Low damage' hybrid ductile jointed structures are an alternative to ductile design that offers a similar efficiency in material consumption, however limits the extent of damage. Hybrid ductile jointed structures are a novel type of structure that has articulated joints with re-centring and energy dissipation capability. This paper will provide a review of low damage design technology and present a comparative analysis between a ductile and alternative low damage design for a bridge project in New Zealand. Advantages and limitations with low damage design will be outlined, and a whole-of-life analysis undertaken to determine the economic benefit.