Computational studies on the seismic response of the State Route 99 bridge in Seattle with SMA/ECC plastic hinges

This paper reports a computational study on the seismic response of a three-span highway bridge system incorporating conventional and novel substructure details for improved seismic performance. The bridge has three continuous spans supported by two single-column piers and integral abutments founded on drilled shafts. It will be the first full-scale highway bridge to use superelastic shape memory alloy bars (SMA) and engineered cementitious composite (ECC) to mitigate column plastic hinge damage and minimize residual displacements after a strong earthquake. A three-dimensional computational model capturing the nonlinear constitutive response of the novel materials and the effects of dynamic soil-structure interaction was developed to assess the seismic response of the bridge in finite-element software OpenSees. Two versions of the same bridge were analyzed and compared, one with conventional cast-in-place reinforced concrete columns, and the other with top plastic hinges incorporating Nickel-Titanium (NiTi) SMA reinforcing bars and ECC. The novel SMA/ECC plastic hinges were found to substantially reduce damage and post-earthquake residual displacements in the bridge substructure, but led to larger maximum drifts relative to the bridge with conventional reinforced concrete plastic hinges. The analysis results suggested that the novel plastic hinges could lead to improved post-earthquake serviceability of bridges after intense earthquakes.