EngineeringStructures, Vol. 20. Nos 4-6, pp.

282-290, 1998
1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
PII: S0141-0296(97)00029-1 0141~)296/98 $19.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER

Performances and damages to steel

structures during the 1995
Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake
E. Watanabe, K. Sugiura, K. Nagata and Y. Kitane
Department of Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan

Described herein are the performances of and damages to steel

bridges and viaducts during the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake in
relation to past design specifications. A particular emphasis is
placed on the performance of steel bridge piers and their buckling,
low-cycle fatigue and brittle crack failures. Numerical simulation of
typical damage such as elephant-foot buckling, failure of bearing
devices and dynamic interaction of steel piers from adjacent
reinforced concrete piers is carried out and possible causes are dis-
cussed. Finally, concluding remarks on the key concepts for earth-
quake-resistant design of bridges, several recommendations for
the improvement of steel pier design and comments on future
research needs are made. 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Keywords: seismic performance, steel structures, damages,

numerical simulation, buckling, bearing devices, dynamic inter-
action

1. Characteristics of the earthquake 1000

800
The Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake occurred at 5:46 am on 600
c-
the 17 January 1995, Japanese time. The hypocenter was 400 O
"~,
estimated to be just below the Northern Awajishima Island 200
'~, 0
and the earthquake was caused by a series of movements ~ -200
of active faults running below the Northern Awajishima
Island and Hanshin Area. The shock of magnitude 7.2 < -6011
inflicted unprecedented damage on a wide area from the -800
Northern Awajishima Island to the Hanshin Area j-3. The -1000 0 me~
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Meteorological Agency graded the maximum seismic inten-
T i m e (sec)
sity to register 7 on the Japanese scale of 7, making it the
worst ever experienced in Japanese history 4. The lives of Figure 1. Ground acceleration (NS direction) recorded at
K.M.M.O. during the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake
6300 people were lost and 200 000 houses and office build-
ings were destroyed with the total economic loss estimated
to amount to US$100 billion. The highest ground acceler-
! " i
ations were recorded at the Kobe Marine Meteorological
Observatory (K.M.M.O.) and registered 818, 617 and 332 "~ 25
gal in the north-south (NS), in the east-west (EW) and ~ 0
up-down (UD) directions, respectively. Large acceler- ~ -25
ations from 500 to 800 gal were also recorded in other plac- o
> -50
es. -75 ........ ; ......................................... ~......... ~.......... ; ........
Figure 1 shows the ground acceleration record of the NS i i ! i i i i i
-100
component recorded at the K.M.M.O., whereas Figure 2 0 5 I0 15 20 25 30 35 40
shows the computed ground velocity upon integration of Time (sec)
the acceleration of the NS component 5. Apart from the Figure 2 Ground velocity (NS) computed from an acceleration
maximum acceleration of 818 gal (cm/s2), this large velo- record recorded at the K.M.M.O. during the Hyoooken-Nanbu
city up to 90 kine (cm/s) confirms that the Hyogoken- earthquake

282
Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al. 283

e"
Table2 Number of piers and girders damaged during the
400 . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . .
Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake: Bay Line (Route 5) of the Han-
......................... ....... I h--0.02 t shin Expressway 7
e'. 350 I ..... h=51
Steel and
250 Steel Concrete concrete bridge Bearing
Damage rank piers piers girders system*
o 200
> 150 As (collapse) 0 0 1 --
A (serious) 0 0 0 42
100 B (moderate) 13 1 8 78
C (light) 21 22 28 102
< D (none) 109 200 425 229
508.,i .......... ' ' .........
, , ,-i...............!:~,=":7,;"~
1.0 10.0 Total 143 223 462 451
Period (sec)
*Number of bearing lines or number of bearing devices.
Figure3 Maximum absolute velocity response spectra from
an acceleration record (NS) recorded at the K.M.M.O. during
the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake such as the Miyagiken-Oki earthquake. Compared with
these lines, most of the main structural frames of the
Nanbu earthquake is the largest earthquake ever experi- bridges on Bay Line (Route 5) of the Hanshin Expressway
enced in a city. were relatively undamaged (Table 2) 7.
Figure 3 shows the corresponding maximum absolute An exceptional case was the Nishinomiya Harbor Bridge,
velocity response spectra for different values of the damp- running in the EW direction, where the simply-supported
ing factor: h = 0.02, 0.05 and 0.1 resulting in velocities as steel box girder of the eastern side span (52 m) adjacent to
large as 375 kine and, thus, extremely large impulsive the main span of a Nielsen arch bridge (span length 252 m)
forces 3. fell off and to the ground due to the horizontal movement
of the eastern pier of the main span presumably due to
liquefaction, as shown in Figure 4.
2. General remarks on structural damages
The collapse of such major infrastructures as viaducts of 3. Damages to steel bridges
elevated highways and railway tracks during the
Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake was an unprecedented For the first time in world history, steel bridge piers suf-
shock6. The probability of such a large near-field earth- fered damage due to an earthquake 3,13-15. Concrete piers
quake occurring in the Hanshin Area was thought to be have been commonly constructed all over Japan; steel piers,
'once in every 500 or 11)00 years'. Most of the severely however, have been constructed only in limited regions
damaged structures were found to have been designed and such as large Japanese cities where the construction sites
constructed following pre-specifications. For example, the rest on soft alluvial deposits. Fortunately, most of these
Kobe Line (Route 3) of the Hanshin Expressway came into cities have not experienced a large earthquake since the
service during the period between 1966 and 1970, whereas Great Kanto earthquake. From the results of field investi-
the provisions for modern earthquake-resistant design in the gations, typical damage to the steel bridge piers may be
specifications were made in 1971, 1980 and 19902. Shown classified into: (a) local buckling; (b) brittle crack failure;
in Table 1 are the results of a damage study on the Kobe and (c) low-cycle fatigue failure and each type of damage
Line of Hanshin Expre;~sway 7,s. The Sanyo New Line is briefly described below.
(Shinkansen) was also designed according to the older The first type of damage, namely local buckling of proto-
specifications for Shinkansen implemented in 1966. These type steel bridge piers, was seen for the first time. Figure 5
lines had been basically designed to be earthquake resistant for example shows a case of local buckling of a rectangular
using the seismicity coefficient method assuming an elastic cross-section of bridge piers, while Figure 6 shows a case
acceleration response of only 200-300 gal. The current of local buckling of the circular cross-section of bridge
specifications9 ~ were implemented considering new find- piers, which is the so-called 'elephant-foot' buckling. Most
ings from damages during the historical large earthquakes of the steel bridge piers were composed of thin-walled

Table 1 Number of piers and girders damaged during the

Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake: Kobe Line (Route 3) of the Han-
shin Expressway 7

Steel and
Steel Concrete concrete bridge Bearing
Damage rank piers piers girders system*

As (collapse) 3 65 29 --
A (serious) 8 84 64 220
B (moderate) 12 107 243 195
C (light) 112 246 215 206
D (none) 28 510 753 348
Total 163 1012 1304 969
Figure4 A side-span of the Nishinomiya Harbor Bridge fell to
*Number of bearing lines or number of bearing devices. the ground
284
Figure 5 Buckling of steel pier with a box cross-section
Figure 6 'Elephant-foot' buckling of steel bridge pier
cross-sections such as stiffened panels and cylindrical
shells so that such thin plate/shell elements under com-
pression due to bending may undergo local buckling.
Although a main cause of elephant-foot buckling was
argued whether or not it is to be the impulsive vertical
shock due to the near-field earthquake, alternating buckling
of outer thin walls due to bending has been verified to be
pre-dominant by a laboratory static testing on the scaled
bridge pier models ~5. In particular, an axisymmetric buck-
ling shape of elephant-foot type for circular cross-sections
is easily misunderstood to be caused by the impulsive force
in the vertical direction. If this is the case, buckling should
have occurred at cross-sections of thinner walls, but this
did not occur. The actual mechanism of the elephant-foot
buckling may be explained by the scenario shown in
Figure 7.
The second type of damage, brittle crack failure, of
microscopic dimensions have sometimes been witnessed on
:,:. : :.. : :: :.:. ; . :: : :-::: % 7
Figure 7 Mechanism of 'elephant-foot' buckling of circular
piers
Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al.
Figure8 A brittle crack in the beam-to-column connection of
a steel frame-type pier
bridges under daily traffic loads. Also, cracks were reported
to have occurred in the connections of steel bridges and
buildings due to large earthquakes in the past. However,
during the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake, the damages
were so numerous and of larger dimensions. Figure 8
shows a case of a brittle crack of a bridge pier of portal
frame-type. The damage to the upper corner of the pier may
be attributed to the simultaneous action of liquefaction of
the bridge foundation and an adverse combination of big-
impact ground velocities in the horizontal and vertical
directions at freezing temperatures. Similar cracks were
reported in columns of high-rise apartment blocks t4. These
types of damages require engineers to urgently develop
welding details to protect against excessive deformation
of corners.
The third type of damage, low-cycle fatigue failure, may
be thought to be in between the first and the second type.
This can be characterized by local buckling simultaneously
accompanied by the occurrence of tensile cracks. Figure 9
shows such an example. Although steel is a ductile
material, excessive plastic deformation makes steel brittle.
Therefore, structural details also should be developed to
prevent such accumulation of plastic deformation due to
local buckling.
Besides the above-mentioned damages to bridge piers,
the following damages were also reported3:
(a) Damage to bearing devices, seismic connectors of
girders and expansion joints (Figure 10).
(b) Excessive horizontal bending deformation of girder
ends (e.g. knee-braced) (Figure 11).
(c) Buckling of girders due to the collapse of supporting
piers (Figure 12).
====================================
Figure9 Low-cycle fatigue cracking due to excessive plastic
buckling deformation of bridge pier
Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al. 285

ii ,ii ~ ~ ~i:
Figure 10 Plastic elongation of a seismic girder connector
Figure 13 Damage of an arch bridge by bouncing and stamp-
ing on a jacking up mount

Figure 11 Excessive horizontal deformation of a girder end

Figure 14 Buckling of struts connecting arch ribs due to the

excessive displacement at bearing devices

Figure 12 Buckling of a steel box girder due to collapse of sup-

porting bridge pier

(d) Damage to superstructures due to bouncing and stamp-

ing on hard obstacles (Figure 7 and Figure 13).
(e) Buckling of struts connecting arch ribs (Figure 14).
(f) Loosening of cables in Nielsen arch bridges at the
anchor sockets (Figure 15).
(g) Bi-directional 'x-shaped' panel shear buckling in beam
portions of bridge piers (Figure 6).
(h) Plastic elongation ef anchor bolts connecting steel
bridge piers and anchor frames at the footing
(Figure 17).
(i) Sliding of bolted connections.
(j) Cracks in bearing piles beneath the footing.

Figure 15 Loosening of a cable in a Nielsen arch bridge at the

4. Numerical simulation of actual damages anchor socket
In this section, numerical simulations of several major types
of damage described in tile previous section are carried out
and possible causes of such damages are discussed.
286 Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al.
2.0

0.5 l
~--x0.0 '' i~ '
/' / ."
-0.5
/
-1.0 / / ///

-t 5 c ~ - ~ i
-2.0 , I
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Ux ~xy
Figure 16 Bi-directional 'x-shaped' panel shear buckling in
beam portion of a bridge pier Figure 19 Horizontal load-displacement curves of a circular
cantilever column

5
e,
r.
E
O
p- L~

(a) at Point A (b) at Point C

Figure 17 Plastic elongation of anchor bolts connecting a steel
bridge pier and anchor frame at the footing Figure 20 Local buckling shapes of a cantilever column

4.1. Elephant-foot buckling displacement curves nondimensionalized by their yield

Elephant-foot buckling is a well-known type of damage values in Figure 19, the local buckling shapes are checked
which occurs in tanks such as liquid storage tanks, but this and their shapes at points A and C are compared in
type of buckling of bridge piers was also observed in a Figure 20. It is understood that reversed loading may cause
laboratory test ~5. This is mainly because of local buckling small local buckling waves on the outer compressive sides
of compressed cylindrical shells under bending and a rapid alternatively and such local buckling waves are connected
propagation of a buckled wave in the circumferential direc- to each other. As a result, local buckling deformation at the
tion of circular cross-sections. base of bridge piers becomes ring-shaped. However, the
Elasto-plastic finite displacement analysis was carried numerical simulation also indicates that the excessive
out for a cantilever column subjected to cyclic horizontal deformation in one direction may cause severe plastic
displacement and constant vertical load of 20% of yield deformation in the tensile side so that even a reverse in
axial force (e.g. the case of R/t = 37.5 and H/R = 4, is the loading direction may not give rise to an axisymmetric
shown in Figure 18). At various points on horizontal load- buckling wave as shown in Figure 21.
CompressiveLoad In order to improve the ductility of such bridge piers,
the structural details to prevent the propagation of local
~Fz t/
HorizomalLoad
(U'x:Displaccmmt)
node - - ~ , ,=.
E=21190 k g t T m mz
9-node ,
U=o.3 clot ' s
r--
O ' y =24 kglTmm 2 i
r
H
r'--
i
R=I80 nun
z r'---
i
i
r---

l
Figure21 Severe local deformation on the tensile side of
Figure 18 Analytical model of a circular cantilever column cross-section
Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al. 287

buckling waves in the circumferential direction, such as

stiffened circular cross-sections should be developed.
By defining the strength and ductility of bridge piers with
circular cross-section at the peak point of the horizontal I V~V~] I I I V~V~ I ~---
load-displacement curves under monotonic loading, the /tvt,,~~rvtvl',~_3,
effect of the radius-thickness ratio (R/t) on the strength KOBE P-352 3e~ KOBEP-JSI
and ductility is summarized in Figure 22. It is understood
that the strength and ductidity decrease significantly as the , II 2~ I ~
value of this ratio increases. Furthermore, it is found that
R/t should be less than about 35 if a ductility factor of 5 - 6
is required in order to ensutre the safety of structures against
extremely large earthquakes.

4.2. Failure of bearing :~ystems

As listed in Tables 1 and :9, many bearing systems of elev-
ated highway bridges failed. In order to examine the pos-
sible cause of such failure,;, three-dimensional elasto-plastic
response analysis of bridge pier-girder systems was carded
out. The model analyzed here is one of steel bridge piers
of the Kobe Line of the Hanshin Expressway as shown
in Figure 23. Figure 23 Pier-girder bridge systems of the Hanshin
Expressway (unit:cm)
The results of a dynamic response of a single column
pier which has a very wide beam on the top of a column
have shown that the vertical acceleration at the beam tip r_ ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' I ' ' ' --
becomes as large as the horizontal acceleration at the top of
the column due to rigid body motion transformed to vertical 120
motion due to the horizontal motion. Furthermore, in the :- . . . . . 4,; t, Jt] t - f . . . . . . . . :. . . . . No.l =~-
analysis of bridge systems consisting of piers and girders, o.o 80
a complex spatial response was obtained and the large verti- O
t,_
: ' i~!srltl;,,dl;!~ I v" v. : :
cal acceleration at the ou~:er tip of the beam also occurred .~_ 40 _- . . . . r !'~11!~rir ! - " . . . . . . .- . . . . . . . . . .
-- r ........ --
even though the stiffness of girders may have contributed
to reduce the vertical motion of the beam at the tip such o
....
- ...... If
..........
-: ...........
.....
: .....
i--;:22;-;
c=3
...... ,i
as structural dampers. As a result of such severe vertical
motions, the tensile load tzansfers to bearing devices occurs -40 I L L J I I I J J L J [ I I I
as shown in Figure 24. The maximum and minimum load 0 10 20 30 40
transfer to beating systems (nos. 1-5 refer to Figure 25) Time (see)
subjected to different combination of input ground motion Figure 24 Time-history of vertical load transfer at bearing
are summarized in Table 3. Therefore, the bearing devices systems
may fail in the pull-out because only 10% of the weight of

Table 3 Vertical load transfer to bearing devices subjected to

- - e - - Fxmax I Fxy (Fz--0) ~ Uxma x I Uxy (Fz=0)
different combinations of input ground motion (unit:tonf)
- - = - Fxmax I Fxy (Fz=0.;!Py) - - o - Uxmax I Uxy (Fz=0.2Py)
~ Fxma x I Fxy (Fz=0.4Py) ---~-- Uxmax I Uxy (Fz=0.41Py) Analytical Bearing Bearing Bearing Bearing Bearing
case* no. 1 no. 2 no. 3 no. 4 no. 5
2.0 8
Min. -11.2 22.50 52.54 57.04 11.26
1 Max. 146.8 139.2 114.0 98.55 116.8
Range 157.9 116.7 56.96 41.51 105.5
Min. 44.32 55.65 61.75 49.78 29.97
1.5- A_ ~'~ " ~ ~ ~ 2 Max. 93.65 112.1 121.9 123.4 114.3
it. c:~ L "\X --o 6 ~x Range 49.33 56.45 60.15 73.62 84.33
Min. -0.28 14.41 34.87 27.30 -29.96
3 Max. 146.2 134.1 121.6 133.2 141.5
x ~-'~ 5 E Range 156.5 119.7 86.73 105.9 171.5
u. ~,,~_ ', "~"~'~_ x
1.0 ~ . ---- A . ~ ..~..~ -I
---'- L,L.":~,~. ~ - - ~
* e a s e l : KOBE_NS in the direction perpendicular to the
~~:.'~~ 4 bridge direction.
Case 2: KOBE_UD in the vertical direction.
Case 3: Case 1 + Case 2.

0.5 . . . . . 3
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 a superstructure is considered as the lift-up force in the
RIt design, that is 7.5 (tonf) in this analysis. It is also concluded
Figure22 Effect o f r a d i u s - - t h i c k n e s s ratio o n the s t r e n g t h and that strong vertical motion may not always cause the failure
d u c t i l i t y o f b r i d g e piers w i t h c i r c u l a r c r o s s - s e c t i o n (H/R=2.07 of bearing devices.
a n d R = 180 m m ) Furthermore, response analysis of skew bridges and
288 Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe et al.

curved bridges (refer to Figure 25) was also carried out and 3 "'r"'r'"r ...... i'"1 " 1 I'
compared to the bridges shown in Figure 23. The average Bridge axis
span of these bridges is kept constant and the dimensions 2 . . . . ~'. . . . . i-- -i. . . . . ~'. . . . . ~ . . . . . :. . . . . !"
of girders and piers are the same. The ground motion is
input perpendicular to the direction of bridge axis. From E 1
the time history of horizontal displacements at the column
top in the X - Y plane as shown in Figure 26, the most com-
plex time history of horizontal displacement is obtained for ~3
the curved bridges and such relatively large movement ',
from bearing devices may cause a fall-off of girders.

4.3. Interaction between reinforced concrete piers and ,,,I,,,i,,,I,,,

steel piers "3-8 -6 -4 -20 2 4 6 8
From an economical viewpoint, the design of elevated
Y-direction (era)
bridge systems in urban areas can be made by utilizing
(i) Straight bridge
reinforced concrete structures (RC structures). However, it
is only possible to have the longer spans necessary to cross- .... ~li;.J''' I''' ~"T'"l'"l'"
over the intersection of highways using steel structures.
However, the fundamental behavior, beyond the elastic 2
limit, of steel and RC structures is quite different, so that E
the interaction of each type of bridge pier may cause unex- 1
-
pected failure of highway systems. Due to this interaction, 0

severe damages of steel piers adjacent to RC piers have

been reported 2"3.
"~,-I
Here, the dynamic interaction of multi-span bridge sys- X
tems consisting of RC piers and steel piers is investigated.
-2
.... ::
For example, the model examined here is one of the elev- : :
ated bridge system, as illustrated in Figure 27, and the -3
restoring force characteristics of both bridge piers as shown -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8
in Figure 28 is determined based on typical piers of the Y-direction (cm)
Kobe Line of the Hanshin Expressway. At this particular (ii) S k e w bridge
site, the yield strength of steel bridge piers is twice as high
as that of RC piers. Thus, the RC piers went into plastic ,,,!,,,i,,,
Bridge axis at pier 1 J
range and the excessive seismic force happened to be
resisted by the steel bridge piers. Therefore, steel bridge
piers suffered more damage than RC piers as shown in
Figure 29. Damage of this kind can be attributed to the lack E 2
of a common definition of load-can'ying capacity, ductility
index and limit state which are very important in the design
O
0
.)

of earthquake resistant structures. Bridge a x i s [ ~

The effect of the stiffness of girders on the dynamic -2 at pier 2 _j - ~

-4

-6
r
: i i i i i I I i I I I

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
"-'--tl~." If I, IJ 11 '%
Y-direction (cm)
II 10"--'9----.1.....:.#._...6" "i $""il'""t3 "
..,,~. ,, {'I~[ (iii) Curved bridge
Figure 26 Time history of horizontal displacement bridge pier
t~? "* 7l*:ii' El;, in the X - Y plane

l-~-'l__i.
Pier 2
. . , . ~ . . _ , 15.4 _
- r r ] : r x " - - - .

llii:i">,
ii III /1111., tM / I
LJ..!.L.!,
Pier I Pier I Pier 1
(i) Straight bridge (ii) S k e w bridge (iii) Curved Bridge
#=igure25 Analytical model of skew bridge and curved Figure 27 Fictitious model of continuous bridge systems con-
bridge (unit:em) sisting of steel and RC piers
Performances and damages to steel structures: E. Watanabe e t al. 289

800 25
700 / J

600 ~..I / 20
5O0

LI.
400 /
'-
300
I-:'
I i
s.,.oo..
"" 100 : r Steel _
0~ . . . . . RC '
.............. I .... I .... I, 0 ~~'~ ii " ,~.'_~ ~~ ;~
i ~~ ~ :,~ ' ~ ~ - ~ , . ~-~ =-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 $
I

RC3 RC2 RCI St11 Steel2 Steel3

Ditsplacement(em)
Figure 31 Interaction among adjacent bridge piers
Figure28 Skeleton curves clefining restoring force character-
istics of steel and RC piers

15 5. Concluding r e m a r k s

E 10
I hldepndem
sled pier
InA~,rltonl
: maz 4.~cm) The key concepts for the design of earthquake resistant road
bridges are as follows9::
R e pier : max 22.5(cm)

5 ~ , ' R C pier (1) Structures should not yield during moderate earth-
E quakes (i.e. Level I earthquake).
- _ Iillr ~% Steel pier
o (2) Structures should possess sufficient ultimate strength

-5 I and ductility to withstand large earthquakes of rare

"lO I"111 I I I I Ill Ill
0 10 20 30
Time (sec)
Figure 29 Comparison of response of piers consisting of either
steel or RC piers
interaction is also summzxized in Figure 30. This figure
shows that significant interaction occurs between steel and
RC piers as the stiffness of girders increases and unexpec-
ted damage to bridge systems of either steel or RC piers
may occur. Figure 31 shows the change in displacement
response due to plastification of adjacent bridge piers and
it can be concluded that redistribution of seismic force may
extend to several bridge piers. Hence, the seismic perform-
ance of bridge structures should be evaluated based on the
whole system consisting of bridge piers, girders and the
foundation. Furthermore, the design of earthquake resistant
structures should be carried out by balancing the strength
and ductility of each structural element, particularly with
consideration of the redisI:ribution of seismic force acting
on structures.
25
~-.[ ]..~
occurrence (i.e. Level II earthquake).
(3) Structures should be demonstrated through the nonlin-
IIII lilt III ear dynamic analysis, to withstand the forces of an
40 50 60 earthquake of the magnitude of the Hyogoken-Nanbu
earthquake, for example, 818 gal (i.e. Level III
earthquake) or the extreme earthquake considering
active faults.
(4) There is a need to develop methods and computer pro-
grams to evaluate the seismic deformability and
strength of structures.
(5) Scenario earthquakes for the design should be determ-
ined in consideration of the effects of inflicted dam-
ages, social and economic conditions.
(6) Structural control and development of passive devices
to reduce vibrations are encouraged both to reduce the
extent to which structures are affected by earthquake
forces and to prevent collapse of bridges.
(7) Bearings should be regarded as important as main
components of structures rather than being just a fuse;
they must be designed to be earthquake-resistant.
(8) Liquefaction and the movement of foundations should
also be considered in the structural design of bridge
superstructures.
(9) The entire system consisting of superstructure, sub-
i
structure and bearings should be regarded as an inter-
active system, where each component functions to con-
-(3- Steel pier
fer earthquake resistance on the system.
~ RC pier
Thus, it must be stressed that balanced design of the
entire system, considering structural interaction and redun-
dancy of structural system is highly desirable and the fol-
lowing concepts may be recommended for the design of
earthquake resistant bridge piers '5-17

| I I IIIII I t I IIIII I I IIIIII

(a) Use of thicker plates for columns to prevent local buck-
ling and use of stiffeners at least three times as rigid
0.01 0 10 as the minimum rigidity necessary to form nodes and
Stiffness of Girder/Stiffness of Steel Pier prevent the occurrence of buckling waves over the
Figure 30 Effect of the stiffness of girders on response of steel stiffened plate panels.
and RC piers (b) Restriction of the average axial compressive stress to
290 Performances and damages to steel structures: E. VVatanabe et al.
one tenth of the yielding load of the pier in order to
reduce undesirable destabilizing effects.
(c) Until new provisions are made with regard to the
design of steel piers, such as the designation of the
skeleton curve of their hysteretic behavior just like that
for concrete piers, existing steel piers with insufficient
resistance to earthquakes may be tentatively rec-
ommended to be cast in concrete.
(d) Efforts must be made to make structural details as free
from fatigue cracks as possible, e.g. the upper corners
of portal frame piers (Figure 8) or the lower portion
of piers where stiffeners are provided and are connec-
ted by bolts to the anchor frame (Figure 17) and care-
ful periodical inspections are desirable.
Lastly, the H y o g o k e n - N a n b u earthquake reminds us that
the fight against natural disasters is a never ending
endeavor 6.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express appreciation toward the Han-
shin Expressway Public Corporation and the Hanshin
Expressway Administration and Technology Center for
their great assistance to our investigations. Appreciation is
extended to Professor K. Izuno for his valuable discussions
and to Kozai Club for its financial encouragement and the
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture for financial
assistances by a Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific
Research and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on
Priority Areas (Representative: Prof. Otani of University
of Tokyo).
References
1 Abiko Research Laboratory, 'Preliminary report on characteristics
and damages investigation of the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu Earth-
quake', Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 1995,
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