JAPANESE PRACTICE IN

SEISMIC DESIGN OF
PRESTRESSED BRIDGES
Shunji Inomata

Kyokuto Kogen Concrete Shinko Co., Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan

Discusses the philosophy and requirements underlying

Japanese practice in the seismic design of
prestressed concrete bridges. Some typical cases of
bridge damage are given. Presents examples of
damping devices for reducing the effect of an
earthquake in the longitudinal direction. The
importance of properly designed connections
is stressed.

Studies in seismic design began with

the investigation of earthquake damage
to structures. For example, the extent
of seismic damage depends on such factors as soil conditions, height of pier,
seismic intensity, and the type of structure. From past experience on bridges
subject to severe earthquakes, serious
damage was mainly observed on
bridges constructed on poor foundation
soils or on embankments. Although the
damage depends on the behavior of the
foundation during an earthquake, unfortunately little information is available on the dynamic behavior of the
soil. Thus, before any rational seismic
design method can be applied to prestressed concrete bridges, the dynamic
properties and characteristics of the
structure as well as the soil properties
76

should be known. Unfortunately, at

present all we can do is to make the
best of past experiences and to focus
attention on the importance of the connection details between superstructure
and substructure.

Damage to prestressed
bridges
Figures 1 through 5 show typical damage observed on prestressed concrete
bridges caused by the earthquake at
Niigata, Ebino, and Tokachioki. Almost
all the prestressed concrete bridges situated in these regions were simply supported although a few were continuous.
The following examples show some typical cases of bridge damage.
1. Hammering of the girder ends

against each other and spalling of concrete at handrails, curb, and girder end
(Fig. 1).
2. Vertical and horizontal cracking
on the top concrete of abutment or pier
where a fixed end bearing shoe was
connected to them by shear dowels
(Fig. 2).
3. Cracking of the concrete due to
hammering effect of movable concrete
rocker bearing against the concrete wall
of the hole.
4. Shifted elastomer bearing could
not recover its original position (Fig. 3).
5. Abutment or pier shifted or
tilted, apparently due to liquidation of
weak sandy and silty foundation materials, or due to increased earth pressure
of approach fill (Fig. 4).
6. An horizontal distortion of each
deck moving transversely at the movable bearing support (Fig. 5).

Japanese design
practice
To design a bridge of high rigidity, the
seismic force acting on the structure
should be determined as an equivalent
static load multiplied by a seismic coefficient. The horizontal seismic design
coefficient is determined by using a basic seismic coefficient of 0.2 modified
according to (1) seismicity, (2) soil condition, and (3) importance of bridge.
The largest seismic coefficient is 0.3
for important bridges constructed on
poor foundation soils. The smallest coefficient is 0.13 for ordinary bridges
constructed on solid rock.
For a flexible bridge, such as a
bridge constructed on piers and/or
abutments exceeding 25 m in height,
the seismic force should be determined
by multiplying the seismic coefficient
for a relatively rigid bridge by a modification factor f3 (Fig. 6). This factor
/3 depends on the natural period of vibration of the structure and the soil
PCI Journal/July-August 1972

Fig. 1. Hammering of girder ends

against each other and spalling of concrete at handrails, curb and girders

Fig. 2. Vertical and horizontal cracking

on abutment

Fig. 3. Shifted elastomer bearing

Fig. 4. Shifted abutment

77

effect of 1.3 times the combined effect

of dead load and the seismic design
force.
The Japanese Code specifies the requirements for preventing a girder from
falling down during an earthquake. The
following requirements are considered
important.
1. A bearing shoe should be provided with ribs on its underside embedded into concrete and fastened by
anchor bolts to the substructure and the
bolts and the ribs should be designed so
that either of them should be able to
resist the total design seismic force independently (Fig. 7).
2. The minimum distance between
the outer edge of the bearing shoe and
the free edge of top of substructure, in
the longitudinal direction, should be
equal to:
Fig. 5. Horizontal distortion of deck

conditions. For example, a flexible

bridge having a 1.0 second natural period should be designed using the seismic
coefficient multiplied by 1.25, that is,
0.38 for the first case and 0.16 for the
second case. For safety against failure
the ultimate strength at all the critical
sections should be checked under the

___ AW g
\ =

20 + 0.51 (cm) for a girder

less than 100 m
30 -F 0.41 (cm) for a girder
longer than 100 m
where 1 = span length in meters.
When a suspended span is placed in
a cantilever bridge construction, the
length of the overlapping part of each
girder at their mutual support should
he longer than 60 cm.

(Soil classification:
I. denotes rock layer formed prior to
the tertiary or dilluvium less than 10 m
in thickness above rock layer
II. denotes dilluvium more than 10 m
in thickness above rock layer or alluvium less than 10 m in thickness above
rock layer
III. denotes alluvium less than 25 m in
thickness and soft layer less than 5 m
thick
IV. denotes remaining soils)

Fig. 6. Coefficient Beta given as a function of natural period and soil condition
78

Fig. 7. Roller shoe with rib

A
(3930

3930
^

.a
0L-

Eiast Bearing

Reinforced Corcrete Stopper

0I0
y A

Section A - A

Fig. 8. Arakawa railway bridge

PCI Journal/July-August 1972

79

C - C

^'O C

L.0

Illlllllllli!

Fig. 9. Reinforced concrete stopper

B B

A A

ale

1
^
^

I-&.I.
Cushion

Fig. 10. Connection at girder end

80

--

a^

Longitudinal Section

Transverse Section

Oil Damper

(oo
0

0
0
0

Piston Rod

Robber Seal Gr ease

Fig. 11. Shoe with oil damper

3. A device should be provided to

prevent an excessive displacement of a
moveable bearing and to restrict longitudinal and transverse displacement of
a girder.
4. A device should be provided to
connect a girder to a parapet wall of an
abutment and/or to another girder.
Fig. 8 shows a stopper used in a prestressed concrete railway bridge. The
stopper projected from the top of a
pier into the hole made in the prestressed concrete slab. The prestressed
concrete girders were also connected
with one another by steel rods and
enough clearance was placed allowing
the movement of the girder due to
creep, shrinkage, and temperature
change.
Fig. 9 shows a device now widely
PCI Journal/July-August 1972

used for simply supported girders

placed on elastomer bearings. The rei-forced concrete stopper projects from
the top of the pier or abutment and a
prestressed concrete end diaphragm
will press against the stopper during an
earthquake. The girder ends are also
connected with one another by bars,
through an intermediate material which
absorbs shock energy (Fig. 10).
The most difficult design problem for
a continuous prestressed concrete
bridge is in distributing the longitudinal horizontal force of the earthquake
to each support. In conventional design, one of the supports is fixed so as
to resist nearly all the horizontal seismic force while the other supports are
on rollers. Unfortunately, in this type
of construction the substructure at the
81

s _ a

Sto per

Girder

..

.-

Girders

Anchc

`"

j'

y .^

,~ ,

Plate Spring

Substructure

Substructure

Viscous Material

<

3topper^

Fig. 12. Viscous damper

P-5
61.0

55.0

66.0

11 0

3
.Q
o

2
P-6

P-5

P-6

P-7

Fig. 13. Otagawa railway bridge (double track)

82

X52

jected from the girder is inserted into

the hole filled up by viscous material
on the top of the substructure and special steel plate springs are placed between the steel rod and the concrete
wall to absorb the braking force at one
support.
To check the effect of this device,
dynamic analyses were carried out on
many continuous bridges.
Fig. 13 shows a seven-span continuous prestressed concrete railway bridge.
The girder is supported on rollers in
the longitudinal direction but in the
transverse direction the girder is connected to the supports by pins allowing
no relative displacement between the
girder and the supports. At each support the previously mentioned dampers
were placed and a damper with steel

fixed support becomes too massive

thus making the bridge uneconomical.
Several methods for distributing the
horizontal seismic force to each support
have been used.
Fig. 11 shows a bearing shoe
equipped with oil damper, allowing
slow movement, such as, displacement
due to creep, shrinkage, and temperature change without appreciable resistance but developing a large resistance
in the case of a rapid displacement
caused by earthquake motion. The horizontal seismic force, therefore, can be
distributed to all the supports. One
fixed support is provided to resist the
braking force during the normal service
load condition.
Fig. 12 shows another type of damper. At each support, a steel rod pro-

5001

a
400(
d/20
/------300(
0

H0
.ti

'I
2000

B,^

1000

1.0

Velocitv*Qcm/sec) -

3.0

4.0

Fig. 14. Viscous stopper; relation between resisting force and velocity
PCI Journal/July-August 1972

83

Elevation
146

146

146
2

4073

m
H

Plan
Total Length 510.2m

Fig. 15. Amakusa No. 4 bridge

plate springs was placed at P-5.

The relation between the resisting
force per unit surface area of steel rod
and the velocity of movement is shown
in Fig. 14. In this illustration the figures
d/20 or d/13.5 mean the ratio between the orifice width and the rod
84

width. In general, these relations are

not linear; however a simplified relation using a straight line B was used in
the calculation.
From P-2 to P-7 the effect of damping was kept constant but the effect was
reduced to one-half at P-1 and to one-

ninth at P-8, by changing the width

of the orifice.
The recorded acceleration of the
north-south component of the 1968
Muroran earthquake was used as the
prescribed horizontal acceleration at
the base of the foundation. The maximum acceleration was assumed to be
150 gals (cm/sect) at the base.
Maximum acceleration of the girder
was 181 gals (cm/sec t) in the longitudinal direction. Maximum shears
were calculated both dynamically and
statically. The two results agreed well.
In the statical calculation, all the supports were assumed to be connected
with the girder by pins. By considering
the flexural rigidity of each pier, the
shearing force at the top of each pier
was calculated statically by applying
the static equivalent seismic force. In
general, dampers were effective in resisting an earthquake in the longitudinal direction.
Fig. 15 shows the sections of a 510 m
long highway bridge. This bridge was
constructed by using the classical cantilever construction method. Each center
of the intermediate spans was connected by hinges which transmitted
only shearing force. All foundations
were on hard rock.
The recorded acceleration of the
1952 Taft earthquake was used as the
prescribed horizontal acceleration giving a maximum value of 150 gals (cm/
sec2).

Conclusion
Dynamic analyses on continuous
bridges equipped with dampers showed
their effectiveness in avoiding excessive
amplification of the dynamic response

in the longitudinal direction.

Viscous dampers are effective only
in the longitudinal direction. The dynamic response in the transverse direction could be two to three times the
Japanese Code response.
It appears, therefore, that if a bridge
had been designed by the Japanese
Code seismic force requirement, it
would have been significantly overstressed by the actual prescribed earthquake. The true dynamic behavior of a
prestressed concrete bridge can be determined only if allowance is made for
nonlinearity, such as cracking and plastic deformation. The relation between
the applied moment and curvature under cyclic loading should be investigated beyond the cracking stage.
We have no experience of earthquake damage on rigid frame bridges.
Today (1971) several rigid frame overpasses with inclined prestressed legs
have been constructed. The maximum
elastic response to an earthquake is expected to be larger than the Japanese
Code. Special attention should be
given to the design of connections. Not
only the required strength but also
enough ductility should be carefully
checked at these joints. If the supporting members are rigidly connected to
the superstructure, the brittle failure of
the supporting members should be
avoided. For this purpose the concrete
near the connecting part should be confined by sufficient hoops or stirrups.
Avoiding a brittle failure mechanism in
the design of seismic structures is of
vital importance.
The Japan Prestressed Concrete Engineering Association wishes to cooperate with the Prestressed Concrete Institute in seismic research of prestressed concrete structures.

Discussion of this paper is invited.

Please forward your discussion to PCI Headquarters by November 1, 1972,
to permit publication in the November-December 1972 issue of the PCI Journal.
PCI Journal/July-August 1972

85