Analytical fragility curves in intermediate seismic hazard zones for chilean highway bridges.

The damage caused by recent earthquakes around the world, such as Chile (1985, 2010, 2014), USA (1994),
Mexico (1995, 2003, 2010), Japan (2001, 2011), China (2008) and Haiti (2010)) emphasize the role of bridges
as the most vulnerable component of a highway system. Fragility curves are presented for Chilean typical road
bridges using nonlinear analytical models, and a series of compatible synthetic records. The fragility curves
were generated for different soil conditions considering two models: (1) one without sacrificial shear keys,
which has no transverse displacement restriction and (2) other with non-linear shear keys, which offers
transverse constraint to displacement up to a maximum deformation of the sacrificial shear key.

The results of this study reveal that external shear keys have an important contribution to the seismic
performance of the bridge studied. The comparison of the fragility curves for damage levels I (initial slip) and
II (large residual displacement of the superstructure) shows that the most vulnerable bridges are bridges without
external shear keys, regardless of the seismic hazard zone and the type of soil.
The results obtained from the present study indicate that the use of external sacrificial shear keys in bridges
structures improves the seismic behavior, reducing the maximum lateral displacements, and thus, increasing
the probability of maintaining the continuity of the operation of the bridges. The provided fragility curves may
be used for seismic risk assessment and to evaluate possible improvements in seismic bridge design codes.