Effect of Concrete Shear Keys at Abutment on Seismic Response of Continuous Girder Bridge

Abstract:

To investigate the effect of the concrete shear keys at abutment on transverse seismic reaction of a short and medium span continuous girder bridge, a finite element model was built based a continuous girder bridge. The effects of peak strength of the concrete shear keys at abutment on transverse seismic reaction of a continuous girder bridge were analyzed using the nonlinear time history method. The results show that when the peak strength of the concrete shear key at abutment increases, the shear demand of the top of abutment increases while the displacement demand of bearing at pier decreases, but the decrease amplitude declined to zero. A reasonable selection of the peak strength of the concrete shear key at abutment can effectively reduce the displacement demand of bearing at the pier, and avoid the severe seismic damage on the abutment.