M. Saiid Saiidi, PhD, PE, FACI

Civil Engineering Department

University of Nevada

ABSTRACT 

Much has been learned in the past thirty years about the deformation demand that strong earthquakes place on reinforced concrete bridge components, and the fact that older bridges lack the required toughness and strength to meet the seismic demand.  Unlike new bridge design in which engineering and scientific principals control the process, retrofit design is affected by many other factors and hence it is handled on a case-by-case basis.  Because of the urgency of retrofit, many of the existing guidelines are based on mostly engineering judgment and less so on research data.  Design of new bridges has also been primarily driven by judgment and general observation of bridge damage in past earthquakes.

The presentation will include a brief summary of important findings on the seismic performance of retrofitted RC bridge piers retrofitted with fiber-reinforced plastics and in-fill walls based on shake table testing of large-scale models.