EVALUATION OF HYDRODYNAMIC FORCES IN EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE ANALYSIS OF BRIDGE PIERS

Abstract

An analysis procedure for the estimation of hydro-dynamic forces on submerged bridge piers is presented. The suggested procedure is accurate but this accuracy is not obtained at the expense of simplicity, available in the method recommended in IS: 1893-1984. The presented procedure requires the hydrodynamic analysis of an infinitely-high bridge pier with the cross-section same as that of the actual bridge pier. For this purpose, an efficient method for the hydrodynamic analysis of infinitely-high bridge pier is presented which uses finite elements in coupling with boundary integral procedures. This method is very efficient compared to the conventional finite element method, and this efficiency is not achieved at the expense of accuracy...