Proposing a simplified friction pendulum system optimization method for multi-span bridges

This research aims to optimize the seismic isolation bridge systems by using the metaheuristic optimization algorithm, called Cuckoo Search (CS). In this study, the Single Friction Pendulum Bearing (SFPB) is considered as a seismic isolator system in which are placed between the bridge piers and its deck. In this regard, minimizing the bridge deck acceleration is selected as optimization objective based on different design variables of seismic isolators including friction coefficient and the radius of curvature. Also, different constraints are chosen on the optimization process including the effective damping and period of the friction pendulum seismic isolator. For this purpose, typical Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridges with different SFPB situations (i.e., optimized and status-que cases) are modeled in Seismostruct finite element platform by performing non-linear time history analysis considering ten near-fault records. The result shows that the proposed optimization framework leads to a reduction in the bridge deck acceleration on average of ۳۸%.

Keywords:

Optimization , Friction pendulum seismic isolator , Multi-span bridge , Metaheuristic algorithms