Dr Stergios Aristoteles Mitoulis
Biography
I graduated with a 5-year diploma (MEng equiv) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Subsequently received an MSc in sustainable design of infrastructure to earthquakes and other hazards, and a PhD in bridge engineering in 2008 from the same university on bridge engineering.
I am the leader of the infrastructuResilience initiative. I am currently director of the MSc Bridge the MSc Structural and MSc Civil Engineering courses with expertise in resilience-based design of critical infrastructure, including networks, transport hubs, bridges, and associated interoperabilities. I have skills on advanced numerical modelling and soil-bridge-interaction and my research has been continuously supported by UK and EU funding amounting at more than £1.2 million. I am a member of the SECED-ICE, ASCE, EAEE, IABSE and FHEA-UK.
I am contributing significantly to the development of the next generation of Eurocodes as delegate of the BSI Mirror Group of Eurocode and UK delegate of the BSI (CEN/TC 250/SC8-TG2) for the design and retrofitting of bridges, the BSI committee B/525/10 (Horizontal Group-Bridges) and the WG11 of the EAEE for the design of bridges.
I have published more than 100 journal and conference papers and book chapters. I have worked as principal investigator, co-investigator and researcher for more than 20 research projects relevant to the resilience of bridges under diverse hazards, including:
- A recently won H2020 SERA-TA research project on the dynamic identification and monitoring of scoured bridges
- H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 Briface project on novel assessment of bridge retrofitting measures and use of guided waves
- H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 Rebounce project on the resilience assessment framework for bridges and transport networks exposed to hydraulic hazards.
I manage a group of highly skilled postdoctoral, doctoral and postgraduate researchers, who work on bridge scour and on the multi-hazard risk and resilience assessment of transport assets, including fragility modelling of bridges with scoured piers and abutments (H2020-MSCA-2017 TRANSRISK). I recently had four successful Marie-Curie grants and I am currently supervising four highly skilled researchers in the area of resilience engineering and critical infrastructure assets and networks exposed to multiple natural hazards.
My research is supported by world-leading research centres and industries in the area of transport infrastructure and natural hazards, i.e. EIFFEL University (former IFSTTAR), TRL, NGI, ARUP-Resilience Shift, Transport Scotland, JBA Trust and HR-Wallingford, Sika Switzerland and DENCO Structural Engineering Consulting. Among other prestigious ongoing alliances, I have also collaborated with researchers from the US Army Corps, OECD and the World Bank in variable research initiatives and publications.
Another activity of mine is the use of structural health and functionality monitoring for the design and assessment of critical infrastructure. By further pushing the boundaries of civil engineering I have recently co-authored an opinion paper with another 11 co-authors to discuss the possibilities of using digital and/or emerging technologies into streamlined and novel risk and resilience assessments. This paper has been very recently accepted to be published in a Nature research journal.
I also led research on accelerated bridge constructions (ABC) to deliver resilient bridge designs. I have worked closely with SMEs to test, certify and develop commercially available design software for bridges, optimise the behaviour and deliver smart bridge bearings and assess the risks of landslides in Scotland, eg Rest and be Thankful. These research efforts were funded by Innovate UK and SMEs (eg Winter Associates & TARRC). In addition, I developed a unique research activity on the design of integral bridges, including advanced soil-structure-interaction modelling and assessment of bridges, as well as, use of recycled materials. The latter is considered to be fully aligned with worldwide initiatives for reusing and recycling materials, (see UN’s sustainable development goals-SDG).
I am an active consultant for industries, deliver CPD seminars and I am also officially a lecturer of the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK. I have editorial and reviewing responsibilities in reputed journals (more than 60) and served as an evaluator for H2020 and EPSRC proposals. I have also been invited by Highways England to participate in the working group on “highway bridges exposed to hydraulic actions”, which aims at updating the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) on bridge scour design and assessment. Among numerous consultancies and designs, I also provided consultancy to the municipality of the Western Macedonia for the rehabilitation of the second longest bridge in Greece, the 1371m-long Servia/Polyfytos bridge in Kozani Greece, and led a team of designers and consultants to optimise future interventions.
University roles and responsibilities
- Leader of the MSc Structural Engineering
- Leader of the MSc Civil Engineering
- Leader of the MSc Bridge Engineering
- Level Coordinator HE5 (Year 2) IStructE Surrey liaison
In the media
Research
Research interests
- Bridges
- Resilience
- Road network resilience
- Bridge scour
- Multi-hazard risk and resilience
- Transport asset management
- Bridge bearings/isolation
- Smart materials
- Recycled tyres
- Backfill
- SSI effects
- Abutment
- Prestressed concrete.
For further information on my research interests please visit my personal website.
Research projects
ReBounce will deliver for the first time in the international literature a unique integrated framework for the quantification of risk and resilience of flood-critical bridges and transport networks. The research output of ReBounce will be an enabler for bridge and network resilience assessment against floods and a facilitator of decision-making in resource allocation strategies for EU bridges and transport network owners and operators. A strong case-study has been planned on the second longest bridge in Greece the 1372m-long and 45-year old Polyfytos/Servia Bridge, which suffered deterioration from multi-hazard stressors, including the 1995 earthquake, corrosion and hydraulic actions.
Partners to provide case studies: IFSTTAR, France and JBA Consulting, UK
Innovate UK (2020)
Tertiary Education Trust TETFUND (£131,000)
Research collaborations
Research Centres & Institutes
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI)
Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC)
Designers & Consultants
Transportation Research Laboratory (TRL)
ARUP UK – The Resilient Shift
HR Wallingford Ltd
JBA Trust
Hewson Consulting Engineers
Maccaferri UK & Ireland
Stakeholders
Network Rail
RSSB
Highways England
Transport Scotland
Devon County Council
Universities
Bristol University, UK
Imperial College London, UK
University of Strathclyde, UK
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR
Polytechnic University of Marche, IT
University of San Marino, IT
My teaching
I am the Director of the MSc Civil Engineering.
Modules I teach on
- ENGM031 Prestressed concrete bridge design (based on Eurocodes)
- ENGM030 Bridge deck loading and analysis
- ENG2103 Structural Analysis (static and dynamic)
- ENG1076 Structures (laboratory tests)
- ENG3183 Integrated Design 3 (reinforced concrete design)
- Level 2 Tutor.
My publications
Publications
Monitoring-enhanced resilience in transport management is emerging together with the new technologies and digital data, however have not been fully explored yet. Digital technologies have the potential to provide rapid resilience assessments in a quantifiable and engineered manner for transport infrastructure, which is exposed to multiple natural and human-induced hazards and diverse loads throughout their life-cycle. Physical damage and disruption of networks and interdependent systems may cause tremendous socioeconomic impact, affecting world economies and societies. Nowadays, transport infrastructure stakeholders have shifted the requirements in risk and resilience assessment. The expectation is that risk is estimated efficiently, almost in real-time with high accuracy, aiming at maximising the functionality and minimising losses. Nevertheless, no integrated framework exists for quantifying resilience to diverse hazards, based on structural and functionality monitoring (SHFM) data, and this is the main capability gap that this paper envisages filling. Monitoring systems have been used widely in transport infrastructure and have been studied extensively in the literature. Data can facilitate prognosis of the asset condition and the functionality of the network, informing computer-based asset and traffic models, which can assist in defining actionable performance indicators, for diagnosis and for defining risk and loss expediently and accurately. Evidence exists that SHFM is an enabler of resilience. However, strategies are absent in support of monitoring-based resilience assessment in transport infrastructure management. In response to the above challenge, this paper puts forward for the first time in the international literature, a roadmap for monitoring-based quantification of resilience for transport infrastructure, based on a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art. It is a holistic asset management roadmap, which identifies the interactions among the design, monitoring, risk assessment and quantification of resilience to multiple hazards. Monitoring is embraced as a vital component, providing expedient feedback for recovery measures, accelerating decision-making for adaptation of changing ecosystems and built environments, utilising emerging technologies, to continuously deliver safer and resilient transport infrastructure.
Conceptual design of bridges has evolved rapidly during the last ten years and new, efficient and cost effective design schemes have been introduced in practice. Use of shear keys, as an active seismic link, is not prohibited in current codes. However, the major concern of having the shear keys damaged one-by-one due to their asynchronous participation still remains an open issue. As such, shear keys are typically used to prevent potential span unseating. Shear keys, also known in European literature as seismic links or stoppers, are stub RC structural elements. A capacity design procedure is provided for these elements, to safeguard the support of the deck. Design of shear keys engineering is an open issue in contemporary bridge. Current state-of-the-art deals with the efficient use of reinforcements, while practitioner engineers dealt with the seismic role of these elements and have proposed different materials for the design of stoppers and/or different reinforcement materials, since sacrificial shear keys can respond as structural fuses to limit the demand of the piers. Shear keys, whether they receive seismic actions or not-the last referring to the case in which keys are utilized to avoid the common unseating of the spans-have peculiar response and unconventional reinforcement requirements due to their loading. Simultaneously, their geometry and size is restricted due to bridge's esthetics. Hence, stoppers are relatively small and stub concrete "blocks", which are expected to receive reliably and safely large pounding forces. In this framework, two alternative reinforcement layouts with transverse hairpin bars were assessed. The efficiency of the proposed reinforcement was assessed by comparing the above rebar with the state-of-practice shear key reinforcements. The required hairpin reinforcement ratio was then evaluated through an analytical procedure that accounted for the relation between the reinforcement hairpin ratio vs the capacity of the shear keys. The procedure indicated the most appropriate reinforcement ratio for a required capacity of the stopper. The study proposes the reinforcement of the stoppers with additional diagonal rebar. Conclusions are drawn based on the analytical models and the experimental campaign.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis Bearings are used to isolate bridge substructures from the lateral forces induced by creep, shrinkage and seismic displacements. They are set in one or two support lines parallel to the transverse axis of the pier cap and are typically anchored to the deck and to the pier cap. This detailing makes them susceptible to possible tensile loading. During an earthquake, the longitudinal displacements of the deck induce rotations to the pier caps about a transverse axis, which in turn cause tensile (uplift) and compressive displacements to the bearings. Tensile displacements of bearings, due to the pier rotations, have not been addressed before and questions about the severity of this uplift effect arise, because tensile loading of bearings is strongly related to elastomer cavitation and ruptures. An extended parametric study revealed that bearing uplift may occur in isolated bridges, while uplift effect is more critical for the bearings on shorter piers. Tensile displacements of bearings were found to be significantly increased when the isolators were eccentrically placed with respect to the axis of the pier and when flexible isolators were used for the isolation of the bridge. The results of this study cannot be generalised as bridge response is strongly case-dependent and the approach has limitations, which are related to the modelling approach and to the fact that emphasis was placed on the longitudinal response of bridges.
It has been recognized that an isolated deck develops horizontal displacements of considerable amplitude during a strong earthquake. In this case the possibility of mobilizing the abutments in moderating such large amplitude horizontal response is beneficial for the safety of the structure. Thus, apart from lowering the seismic forces by the low-stiffness isolator units, the interaction between the deck and the abutments in the form of pounding for large horizontal deck response amplitudes aims at limiting through this mechanism excessive horizontal deck displacements. Such a problem was examined at the laboratory of Strength of Materials and Structures of Aristotle University using a small-scale physical representation that retains in a qualitative way the following important features: 1. A relatively stiff steel platform, representing the bridge deck, which is supported on a shaking table by two flexible supports, representing the isolator units; it is subjected to simulated horizontal earthquake motions developing large amplitude horizontal displacement response. 2. The possibility of bridge deck pounding on the abutment was introduced through a connector device that became active after the deck response exceeded a certain amplitude, introducing an initial gap within this connector. Despite the fact that these two basic response mechanisms, flexibility of isolator units and connector force-displacement characteristics, are crude small-scale representations of the actual mechanisms that are mobilized in a prototype bridge deck, the qualitative characteristics of this problems are retained. A number of simulated earthquake tests provided the necessary measured acceleration and displacement response of the model steel platform of the small-scale model and the force-displacement response of the connector and the flexible supports of the steel platform with the shaking table. This was next utilized to validate numerical simulations of this small-scale experimental representation of the bridge-deck pounding problem. By comparing the numerical predictions with the measured response of this small-scale experimental representation of the bridge-deck pounding problem it can be concluded that such numerical simulations can yield quite accurate predictions provided that the force-displacement characteristics of the isolator units as well as the force-displacement characteristics of the mechanism representing the bridge deck-abutment pounding are defined with reasonable accuracy for the prototype bridge.
Steel-laminated elastomeric bearings are isolation devices which are used extensively in buildings, bridges, nuclear power plants and other structures. Accurate modelling of the behaviour of these devices is of great importance, as the integrity of isolated structures relies heavily on their response. For many years, steel-laminated bearings were designed based on the assumption that they are subjected to compressive and shear loads, as a result of the dead and the horizontal loads, i.e. wind and seismic loads, acting on the structure. It is only very recently that tensile stresses in bearings were studied, as it was observed that local and global tensile stresses might be developed in bearings under seismic excitations. Most importantly, tension within the elastomer might cause local cracks or, in extreme cases, rupture of the elastomer, which might lead to the loss of support of isolated structures. Yet only a few studies exist in the international literature with regard to response of these devices under combined axial and shear loads. The aforementioned gap in the knowledge and the identified rupture of the elastomer of bearings under tensile loads during recent earthquakes comprised the motivation for this research. In this context, this paper examines the response of steel-laminated elastomeric bearings under cyclic shear and variable axial loads and aims to better understand their behaviour with emphasis placed on the tensile stresses within the elastomer, their stiffness and dissipation capacity. Extensive numerical research was conducted with ABAQUS and the Ogden hyperelastic model was used for modelling the elastomeric material. The analyses showed that steel-laminated elastomeric bearings exhibit local tensile stresses, which alter significantly their stiffness and damping ratio. Most importantly, significant tensile stresses within the elastomer were observed locally, even when the bearings were subjected to a combination of shearing and compression.
Fragility functions express the probability that an asset exceeds some serviceability or limit state for a given level of environmental perturbation or other loadings, to which the asset is subjected. They are important components in the quantitative risk analysis of infrastructure exposed to natural hazards and they have typically been derived for structural assets. It is relatively difficult to derive fragility functions for geotechnical assets, such as highway or railway slopes and embankments, due to their inherent heterogeneity. In this paper, a generic granular highway embankment is modelled using the finite element method, considering various groundwater profiles and scour depths at the toe to quantify the deformation of the road surface. A probabilistic assessment of the magnitude of deformation and the groundwater level and scour depth is undertaken to derive fragility functions for the prediction of damage to assets exposed to these multiple hazards. The process of fragility function derivation is explained, uncertainty values are derived, and various regression methods are undertaken. This study is a first attempt to provide a basis for the prediction of slope deformation, and hence of damage, due to moisture ingress and scour, which can be aggravated by climate change. This can be used for the assessment of existing assets, and the design of new ones in the pursuit of more resilient transport networks, as well as for other assets such as levees, dams and other similar earthworks, with some limitations.
The exposure of critical transport infrastructure to natural hazards and climate change effects has severe consequences on world economies and societies and, thus, safety and resiliency of transport networks are of paramount importance. The currently available frameworks for quantitative risk and resiliencebased design and assessment have been mainly developed for bridges exposed to earthquakes. However, there is an absence of well-informed exposure, vulnerability, functionality and recovery models, which are the main components in the quantification of resilience. The present paper proposes an integrated framework for the data- driven resilience assessment of transport infrastructure exposed to multiple hazards by using multiscale monitoring data, such as terrestrial and airborne data, as well as open-access crowd data and environmental measurements. Monitoring and early warnings are expected to produce accurate and rapidly informed quantitative risk and resilience assessments for transport infrastructure and to enhance asset management. Therefore, this framework aims to facilitate stakeholders’ decision-making for daily and catastrophic events and to support adaptation and preparedness with preventive and/or retrofitting measures against multiple hazards.
Structural Health Monitoring of the deflections of a reinforced concrete bridge deck strengthened with Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) or composite materials can help towards obtaining predictions of fail-ures. Data regarding spam deflection, FRP debondings or failures and concrete crack patterns, acquired by guided waves on interfaces of concrete substrate and FRP measures are used in order to represent the damage propagation of the strengthened bridge deck over time. The failure indexes of the interfaces help towards a strategy for maintenance and asset management based on potential risk that derives from structural data. This resilient strategic monitoring of interfaces is a practical, expedient, long-distant tool to estimate the efficiency of the interfaces (Interface Efficiency Indices-InterFeis) and the risk level of the asset with no disruption of traffic or in nonapproachable areas. The monitoring of the time history of data concerning the structural integ-rity, assesses the structural performance of the bridge against critical loads, combined phenomena, extreme events, climate change or other uncertainties of design or of its life-cycle and can be integrated in bridge design guidelines towards infrastructural safety and resilience of the transportation network, saving valuable time and resources.
Transportation infrastructure is a pylon for the society and economy, enabling the services and transportation of goods and people, under normal and emergency circumstances. Bridges act as bottlenecks within road and rail networks, since bridges are crunch points along the network system. Their failures due to multiple natural hazards (e.g. floods, earthquakes, tsunami or ground movements) may cause disproportionate losses, which are expected to be exacerbated due to climate change. Thus, pinpointing the vulnerabilities and quantifying bridge resilience within transportation networks is of paramount importance in the context of natural hazards. However, reliable quantification of risk and resilience of bridges is not yet available, as engineering judgment dominates quantitative assessments. This paper describes an integrated framework for the development of numerical fragility functions and the resilience assessment of bridges subjected to multiple hazards. The framework is applied to obtain the fragility of a representative bridge exposed to flood-induced scour followed by an earthquake. The resulting fragility functions are essential to evaluate direct losses due to multiple hazards, i.e. physical damage, as a means to deliver the Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) of the exposed bridges and networks. The framework is extended to the transport network level exposed to multiple hazards, providing a mean for allocating the resources reasonably toward efficient management and consequence analysis.
Bridges are important components of the transportation network that should maintain mobility and accessibility even after severe earthquakes. The current design philosophy of earthquake-resistant bridges requires the disastrous seismic energy to be dissipated in hinges that are formed in the piers, while the deck should remain essentially elastic. However, postearthquake restoration of damaged piers is challenging, time-consuming, and causes traffic disruptions. In this context, this paper proposes a novel resilient hinge (RH), that is cost-effective and has minimal damage during earthquakes. The RH is a versatile substructure that dissipates energy through the yielding of easily replaceable steel bars, thus offering rapid restoration times. It is designed to have recentering capabilities because a number of steel bars remain primarily elastic. Numerical models of single-column piers with the proposed hinge were studied and compared with conventional reinforced concrete piers to investigate the efficiency of the design. It was found that the piers with RHs exhibit a significant reduction in residual drifts when compared with the ones of the conventional piers. Application of the proposed philosophy in irregular bridge models enables a more rational and even distribution of ductility requirements along the bridge piers.
This paper summarises the ongoing research on the seismic design of isolated and integral bridges at the University of Surrey. The first part of the paper focuses on the tensile stresses of elastomeric bearings that might be developed under seismic excitations, due to the rotations of the pier cap. The problem is described analytically and a multi-level performance criterion is proposed to limit the tensile stresses on the isolators. The second part of the paper sheds light on the response of integral bridges and the interaction with the backfill soil. A method for the estimation of the equivalent damping ratio of short-span integral bridges is presented to enable the seismic design of short period bridges based on Eurocode 8-2. For long-span integral bridges, a novel isolation scheme is proposed for the abutment. The isolator is a compressible inclusion comprises tyre derived aggregates (TDA) and is placed between the abutment and a mechanically stabilised backfill. The analysis of the isolated abutment showed that the compressible inclusion achieves to decouple the response of the bridge from the backfill. The analyses showed that both the pressures on the abutment and the settlements of the backfill soil were significantly reduced under the thermal and the seismic movements of the abutment. Thus, the proposed decoupling of the bridge from the abutment enables designs of long-span integral bridges based on ductility and reduces both construction and maintenance costs.
Abutments are not considered to participate strongly in the earthquake resisting system (ERS) of Eurocode-based designed bridges. However, previous studies showed that seat-type abutments can reduce effectively the seismic actions of bridges, especially when the openings at the expansion joints accommodate only the serviceability movements of the deck. Alongside, a wide field of study is open to new abutment configurations and innovation, as no unified procedure is available for their design and construction. In this framework, a new earthquake resistant abutment with high capacity wing walls is proposed and analytically investigated. The proposed abutment decouples the in-service response of the bridge from the backfill soil by small clearances at the expansion joints, which separate the deck from the abutment. During an earthquake the bridge movements are restrained by the high capacity wing walls and the backfill soil. The seismic performance of the new earthquake resistant abutment is evaluated by utilizing a benchmark bridge, whose design was based on Eurocodes, which has a relatively expensive isolation system with lead rubber bearings and dampers. Two alternative design schemes that utilized the seismic restraining effect of the proposed earthquake resistant abutment were re-designed and compared to the benchmark on the basis of seismic resistance and cost-effectiveness. The comparative results showed that the seismic participation of the proposed abutment with the backfill soil reduces effectively the seismic demand of the re-designed bridge schemes. Accordingly, the initial and the final bridge costs are effectively decreased, showing that the proposed unconventional design is a reliable scheme for future designs of bridges in earthquake-prone areas.
Bearings are used to isolate bridge substructures from the lateral forces induced by creep, shrinkage and seismic displacements. They are set in one or two support lines parallel to the transverse axis of the pier cap and are typically anchored to the deck and to the pier cap. This detailing makes them susceptible to possible tensile loading. During an earthquake, the longitudinal displacements of the deck induce rotations to the pier caps about a transverse axis, which in turn cause tensile (uplift) and compressive displacements to the bearings. Tensile displacements of bearings, due to the pier rotations, have not been addressed before and questions about the severity of this uplift effect arise, because tensile loading of bearings is strongly related to elastomer cavitation and ruptures. An extended parametric study revealed that bearing uplift may occur in isolated bridges, while uplift effect is more critical for the bearings on shorter piers. Tensile displacements of bearings were found to be significantly increased when the isolators were eccentrically placed with respect to the axis of the pier and when flexible isolators were used for the isolation of the bridge. The results of this study cannot be generalised as bridge response is strongly case-dependent and the approach has limitations, which are related to the modelling approach and to the fact that emphasis was placed on the longitudinal response of bridges.
Purpose Transport infrastructure resilience is of paramount importance for societies, therefore its quantification is urgently needed. A resilience assessment framework based on well-informed resilience indices is presented and applied for assessing the resilience of representative bridges exposed to earthquakes. Design/methodology/approach The framework quantifies the robustness of bridges against different seismic hazard scenarios, by utilising realistic fragility functions and the rapidity of the recovery and/or retrofitting after the occurrence of a certain degree of damage, based on realistic restoration functions. Findings Two different approaches for the modelling of the restoration tasks are examined. Both direct losses due to structural damage and indirect losses due to traffic disruption are estimated. Originality/value A new cost-based resilience index is introduced and alternative approaches for expressing the restoration strategies are examined and assessed. The results facilitate owners to enhance cost-based resilience management toward more resilient infrastructure.
Bridges are important components of the roadway and railway networks, as they must remain operational in the aftermath of the seismic event. Permanent movements of the backwall and the backfill soil and rotational deformations of the abutment-backfill system are well known failure modes that potentially may incite deck unseating mechanisms. However, only a few studies dealt with the modeling of deck-abutment-backfill pounding effect. In this framework, an extended parametric study was conducted on a simplified abutment-backfill analytical model. A typical seat-type abutment was analyzed using 2D nonlinear FE model in Plaxis. Simultaneously, a refined abutment-backfill model was built in commercial software SAP2000 in view to highlight significant parameters of the interaction aiming at identifying the effect of collisions on anticipated damages of the abutment. The assessment of the deckabutment-backfill response was performed on the basis of longitudinal maximum and residual movements and rotations of the abutment that may affect both the integrity and the postearthquake accessibility of the bridge. SSI effects due to the interaction of the deck with the abutment and the backfill soil were considered; analyses showed that large seismic movements during an earthquake and permanent movements of the abutment are deemed to put in danger the abutment itself, the integrity of the end spans and finally the accessibility of the bridge. Comparison of different seat-type abutment models in Plaxis and SAP2000 revealed that modeling of bridge abutments with emphasis on the geotechnical design should be properly made. Poor design assumptions may have a serious impact in the assessment of the response of the abutment-backfill-bridge system.
Seismic isolation exhibits a breakthrough in contemporary bridge engineering. The principal of isolation is to protect the bridge piers, by either reducing their seismic actions or through the increase in the damping of the structure. However, there are bridges in which the seismic loading of piers is not effectively reduced when using seismic isolation, and hence the use of expensive and expendable isolators can be avoided. The ineffectiveness of seismic isolation with typical elastomeric bearings was observed in bridges with tall piers. As such the piers can be connected with the deck through rotation-free connections, such as fixed bearings or stoppers, while their seismic loading is not significantly increased. A parametric study is conducted with alternative isolated bridge-models to identify the necessity of piers' isolation against longitudinal seismic actions. Bridge-models with bents of variable heights ranging from 5m to 30m and cross sections ranging from flexible to stiff bent-types were analyzed. All bridge-models were re-analyzed considering that shear keys placed on the piers restrict the longitudinal deck displacements. The adequacy of the piers was checked against longitudinal and transverse seismic actions. The analyses for two levels of the seismic action indicated specific bridge design cases that can utilize both rotation-free pier-to-deck fixities and bearings, while the bridge remains essentially elastic.
Seismic design of isolated bridges involves conceptual, preliminary and detailed structural design. However, despite the variety of commercial software currently available for the analysis and design of such systems, conceptual and preliminary design can prove to be a non-straightforward procedure because of the sensitivity of bridge response on the initial decisions made by the designer of the location, number and characteristics of the bearings placed, as well as on a series of broader criteria such as serviceability, target performance level and cost-effectiveness of the various design alternatives. Given the lack of detailed design guidelines to ensure, at this preliminary stage, compliance with the above requirements, a "trial and error" procedure is typically followed in the design office to decide on the most appropriate design scheme in the number and location of the bearing systems; the latter typically based on engineering judgment to balance performance with cost. To this end, the particular research effort aims to develop a decision-making system for the optimal preliminary design of seismically isolated bridges, assumed to respond as single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems. The proposed decision-making process is based on the current design provisions of Eurocode 8, but is complemented by additional criteria set according to expert judgment, laboratory testing and recent research findings, while using a combined cost/performance criterion to select from a database of bearings available on the international market. Software is also developed for the implementation of the system. The paper concludes with the application, and essentially the validation of the methodology and software developed through more rigorous MDOF numerical analysis for the case of a real bridge. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.
Abutments are not only earth-retaining systems as they also participate to the earthquake resisting system (ERS) of the bridge, under certain design considerations. Current research mainly focuses on the assessment of the performance of integral abutment bridges, while only a few studies dealt with the design of bridges with seat-type abutments accounting for their seismic contribution. Along these lines, a comparative study on seat-type abutment bridges was performed. The scope of the study was to identify possible differences in their seismic response affecting significant design parameters that are the displacements of the deck and the bending moments of the piers. The study employed three real bridges of variable total lengths, openings at the expansion joints, backfill models and moderate to strong earthquake excitations. Non-linear dynamic time history analysis was performed. The study showed that the strong participation of the abutment and the backfill soil can reduce effectively the seismic demand of bridges. However, attention should be given in bridges with tall piers, whose seismic forces can be increased under certain design conditions. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
Steel-reinforced high damping natural rubber (HDNR) bearings are widely employed in seismic isolation applications to protect structures from earthquake excitations. In multi-span simply supported bridges, the HDNR bearings are typically placed in two lines of support, eccentric with respect to the pier axis. This configuration induces a coupled horizontal-vertical response of the bearings, mainly due to the rotation of the pier caps. Although simplified and computationally efficient models are available, which neglect the coupling between the horizontal and vertical response, their accuracy has not been investigated to date. In this paper, the dynamic behaviour and seismic response of a benchmark three-span bridge are analysed by using an advanced HDNR bearing model recently developed and capable of accounting for the coupled horizontal and vertical responses, as well as for significant features of the hysteretic shear response of these isolation devices. The results of the analyses shed light on the importance of the bearing vertical stiffness and how it modifies the seismic performance of isolated bridges. Successively, the seismic response estimates obtained by using simplified bearing models, whose use is well established and also suggested by design codes, are compared against the corresponding estimates obtained by using the advanced bearing model, to evaluate their accuracy for the current design practice.
The preliminary design of seismically isolated R/C highway overpasses is the tar-get of a software based on the current design provisions of Eurocode 8 (Part 2) as well as on engineering decisions included in the expert system. The features of this expert system, which is aimed to facilitate the design of a highway overpass by isolating its deck with the inclusion of elastomeric bearings, are presented and discussed. For such an upgrade scheme a number of successive checks is necessary in order to select an optimum geometry of the bearings. The developed software includes a series of checks provided by Eurocode 8 (Part 2), in order to ensure the satisfactory seismic performance of the selected upgrade scheme. In doing so, the software accesses a specially created database of the geometrical and mechanical character-istics of either cylindrical or prismatic elastometallic bearings which are commercially avail-able; this database can be easily enriched by relevant data from laboratory tests on isolation devices. The basic assumptions included in the software are (a) modeling the seismic re-sponse of the bridge overpass as a SDOF system, and (b) only the longitudinal direction re-sponse is considered; it is common practice for seismically isolated bridge systems to restrain the transverse movement of the deck by stoppers. Moreover, the results form a number of tests performed in the Laboratory of Strength of Materials and Structures of Aristotle Univer-sity, verified the quality of the production process of a local producer of elastomeric bearings subjecting production samples to the sequence of tests specified by International Standard ISO 22762-1 (2005). Strain amplitudes larger than 250% resulted in the debonding of the elastomer from the steel plating. Artificial aging resulted in a small increase of the axial (ver-tical) stiffness and a small decrease of the shear (horizontal) stiffness of the tested bearings. More specimens must be tested to validate further these findings.
An indirect retrofitting scheme for bridges is analytically studied and evaluated. The scheme is based on the reduction in seismic actions of the bridge, namely the displacements of the deck and the bending moments of the piers by utilizing external key walls (barrettes) that participate in the earthquake resisting system (ERS) of the bridge as external supports. Simultaneously, the deck of the bridge is made partially continuous by replacing part of the existing sidewalks by new connecting slabs that are fixed on the existing ones. No strengthening of the existing members of the ERS of the bridge was attempted. The new sidewalk slabs respond as RC structural struts connecting the subsequent simply supported spans of the deck, while sliding on the rest of their lengths. The end spans of the deck are connected with the new key walls (barrettes) constructed behind the abutment. During the bridge service, the part of the RC struts, which are supported by the existing sidewalks, i.e. the unrestraint part of the struts, respond as concrete struts (during expansion of the deck) or ties (during the contraction of the deck). The role of these structural struts is to receive safely the deck constraint movements through their constraint shortening (struts) or lengthening (ties). During an earthquake the movements of the deck are effectively restrained by the external supports namely the key walls. Hence, the displacements of the deck and the resulting loading of the existing piers, bearings and foundations are reduced. The effectiveness of the above retrofitting scheme has been assessed on an existing bridge of Aliakmon River, actually built in the early '90s. The study revealed that this low cost retrofitting scheme can effectively reduce the seismic demand of the bridge.
Transportation infrastructure is a pylon for the society and economy, enabling the services and transportation of goods, under normal and emergency circumstances. Bridgeworks act as bottlenecks within road and rail networks and their failures due to e.g. floods, cause disproportionate losses, which are expected to be exacerbated due to climate change. Thus, pinpointing the vulnerabilities and quantifying the resilience of bridges within transportation networks exposed to hydraulic hazards is of paramount importance. However, reliable quantification of risk and resilience of flood-critical bridges is not yet available, as there is a lot of engineering guesswork for qualitative assessments. This paper describes a new integrated framework for the resilience assessment of bridgeworks and networks subjected to hydraulic hazards such as scour, debris flow and hydraulic actions. An overview of the critical hydraulic hazards, and the evaluation of their intensity measures based on regional and site-specific approaches is provided in the paper. The framework also includes vulnerability models for bridges for the evaluation of direct losses, i.e. physical damage, as a means to deliver the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of the exposed bridgeworks and networks. The second component of the resilience framework is the restoration and reinstatement models, which are expressed by practical restoration times and tasks. Toward this end, this paper summarises an on-going comprehensive survey, which aims to elicit knowledge from experts, in an effort to develop restoration models for bridges exposed to floods. The framework is a useful tool for allocating the resources reasonably toward efficient management and consequence analysis on a network level.
Life line structures such as elevated flyovers and rail over bridges should remain functional after an earthquake event to avoid possible traffic delays and risk to general public. Generally, restraining the structure by reducing the degrees of freedom often cause serious damages that occurs during a seismic event through yielding of the structural components. By allowing the structure to rock through uplift using suitable arrangements can be a plausible seismic resilient technique. In this context, this article proposes a novel seismic resilient pile supported bridge pier foundation, which uses elastomeric pads installed at top of pile cap. The effect of pile soil interaction along with ground response analysis is also incorporated in the full bridge model adopted for the study. One dimensional equivalent linear site response analyses were performed to arrive at the amplified/attenuated ground motions along the depth of soil.The seismic performance of the proposed bridge with new rocking isolation concept is compared with existing bridge located in medium seismic zone of India. With the help of non-linear dynamic time history analysis and nonlinear static pushover analysis, the bridge modelled using the proposed novel rocking isolation technique shows good re-centering capability during earthquakes with negligible residual drifts and uniform distribution of ductility demand along the piers of the bridge considered in this study. •Proposed a novel rocking resilient bridge pier foundation system using elastomeric pads with pile foundation.•Developed a full 3D finite element model incorporating site specific soil-pile-interaction and ground response analysis.•Proposed bridge has improved seismic resilience in terms of recentering capability and reduced residual drifts, over the existing bridge pier system.
Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs) are robust structures without joints and bearings, hence they are less vulnerable to natural and manmade hazards, whilst they require minimal maintenance throughout their lifespan. As a result of these engineering advantages, IABs are appealing to road and railway agencies and consultants. Despite their advantages, IAB design and construction is challenging and the main barriers for extensive use of IABs originate from the interaction between the abutment and the backfill soil. This interaction causes permanent deflections of the backfill soil and enhanced soil pressures on the abutment of passive nature. Under strong earthquake excitations, the response of IABs is strongly affected by the aforementioned interaction. Surprisingly, no agreement has been reached to date in the international literature as to whether this is a beneficial or a detrimental effect. The reasons for acknowledged disagreements in the literature indicates a conceptual gap in IAB design and assessment and it, therefore, requires further investigation. To the best of the author's knowledge, the significance of this interaction in earthquake resistant IABs is dependent on a number of factors, such as the type and intensity of the earthquake, the type, length and condition of the bridge after a number of years of service, the type and height of the abutment, the bridge dynamic characteristics, e.g. stiffness, damping, mass and the type of the backfill soil, among others. Many of these competing and clashing, factors lead to worse or better IAB responses, and this depends on the additional inertia mass of the backfill soil, the additional input motion exerted on the bridge from dual paths e.g. the foundation of the abutment and the backfill soil, the dissipation capacity and stiffness of the abutment and backfill soil. With the aim of better understanding the seismic response of IABs and opine with regard to the importance of the abutment and backfill soil on the seismic response of IABs, a comprehensive state of the art review is conducted in this paper. The review includes all the aspects relevant to the IAB-backfill interaction, with emphasis on IABs subjected to earthquake excitations. The research-based evidence provided here postulates a very complex interaction effect, which may have a positive or negative effect on IAB seismic responses. The evidence gathered also suggests a minimal understanding of the potential benefits of the IAB-backfill interaction, yet a reasonable understanding of the aggravated seismic response due to the same interaction in other instances. The paper includes literature-based evidence and inferences on IAB seismic designs and concludes with the results of an extended numerical study, which was conducted to provide further evidence with regard to the effect of the bridge-backfill interaction on the seismic response and design of IABs. A representative IAB was utilised as the base model and a comprehensive parametric study was conducted varying the abutment type and height, the bridge length and the backfill soil properties. The results are evidence that, indeed, the backfill soil predominantly benefits the bridge as it reduces its bending moments and pier drifts, and which potentially can lead to more economic designs. However, the IAB-backfill interaction is strongly case-dependent and therefore meticulous and detailed modelling of the backfill soil is believed to be important to avoid underestimation of bridge stress resultants and consequent under-designs. •Comprehensive state-of-the-art-review on the seismic response of Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs).•Challenges in earthquake-resistant IABs are discussed with the view of promoting innovation in IAB design and construction.•Opinion, based on new findings, on the benefits and detriments of the bridge-backfill interaction in IABs.•For the analysed IABs, the dynamic bridge-backfill interaction reduced, in most cases, the pier bending moments and drifts.•The backfill soil seems to increase significantly the mass in shorter IABs and also increase the stiffness in longer IABs.
Resilience of bridges in seismic zones can be realised by taking the advantage of rocking isolation which aims at reducing the permanent drifts after a seismic event. The seismic forces at the base of the bridge can be reduced by allowing uplift in the foundation when subjected to ground shaking. Conventional monolithic connection of bridge pier to the foundation often leads to severe damages (or even collapse) during high magnitude earthquakes. In this context, this article proposes a novel seismically resilient pier footing which rocks on elastomeric pads and external restrainers (provided by shape memory alloy bars). Seismic performance of a typical existing overpass motorway bridge is compared with the proposed rocking isolation concept. The proposed technique shows good re-centering capability during earthquakes with negligible residual drifts. Furthermore, it is also observed that forces in the pier and size of pier footing are reduced as compared with the reference bridge considered in this study.
Structural Health Monitoring of the deflections of a reinforced concrete bridge deck strengthened with Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) or composite materials can help towards obtaining predictions of failures. Data regarding spam deflection, FRP debondings or failures and concrete crack patterns, acquired by guided waves on interfaces of concrete substrate and FRP measures are used in order to represent the damage propagation of the strengthened bridge deck over time. The failure indexes of the interfaces help towards a strategy for maintenance and asset management based on potential risk that derives from structural data. This resilient stra-tegic monitoring of interfaces is a practical, expedient, long-distant tool to estimate the efficiency of the inter-faces (Interface Efficiency Indices-InterFeis) and the risk level of the asset with no disruption of traffic or in nonapproachable areas. The monitoring of the time history of data concerning the structural integrity, assesses the structural performance of the bridge against critical loads, combined phenomena, extreme events, climate change or other uncertainties of design or of its life-cycle and can be integrated in bridge design guidelines towards infrastructural safety and resilience of the transportation network, saving valuable time and resources.
There are two alternative strategies that a designer may adopt and combine when faced with the retrofitting of a bridge: (a) the increase in the capacity or (b) the reduction in the actions of the structure. In this article, a new scheme, based on the second strategy, is proposed for the retrofit of existing multi-span simply supported (MSSS) bridges. The reduction in the actions of the bridge was mainly achieved by utilising an external restraining system consisting of I-shaped steel piles driven in the backfill soil and a slab that is the pile-cap of the piles. The restraining system was preliminarily designed and assessed in an existing MSSS bridge system, whose deck slab was made continuous. The existing and the retrofitted bridge were analysed by means of non-linear dynamic time history analysis and their response was compared in terms of serviceability and earthquake resistance performance. The study showed that the retrofitting scheme enhanced effectively the earthquake resistance of the existing bridge. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
An external restraining system with steel piles is introduced under the main objective of the study, which is the enhancement of the earthquake resistance of seismically isolated bridges. This objective is examined through the possibility of the improved seismic participation of the approach embankments, which are able to dissipate part of the induced seismic energy. The seismic participation of the embankments, which are seismically inactive, according to current conceptual design of bridges, is achieved through the extension of the continuous deck slab of the bridge onto the embankments and its restraint by the backfill through steel piles. The serviceability needs of the deck are accommodated by: (a) the flexibility of the steel piles, (b) the looseness of the backfill soil, (c) the partial replacement of the embankment's surface layers by expanded polystyrene (EPS) and (d) the in-service allowable cracking of the continuity slab. A parametric study was conducted and showed that the restraining system can effectively reduce the seismic displacements of the bridge. The proposed technique can be utilized in all bridge structures, and is more efficient in those exhibiting large displacements during an earthquake. Crown Copyright © 2009.
his paper presents a review of the different methodologies developed for the fragility assessment of critical transportation infrastructure subjected to geotechnical and climatic hazards with emphasis placed on geotechnical effects. Existing information on fragility analysis is synthesized, along with its parameters and limitations with particular emphasis on the numerical modeling of transportation infrastructure subjected to geo-hazards. The definition of system of assets (SoA) is introduced and numerical fragility curves are developed for a representative SoA subjected to flooding and seismic excitations. The paper concludes with the opportunities for future developments of fragility analyses for systems of assets under multiple hazards considering mitigation measures and ageing effects.
The features of an expert system, developed for the pre-design of highway overpass R/C bridges, are presented and discussed. This system is implemented into a software and is aimed to facilitate the seismic upgrading of an overpass by isolating its deck with the inclusion of elastomeric bearings. The preliminary design of such an upgrade scheme is the target of this software based on the current design provisions of Eurocode 8 (Part 2) as well as on engineering decisions included in the expert system; it can also be extended easily to comply with alternative design provisions. The developed software is connected with a database of typically used steel laminated rubber bearings and relevant laboratory test results and it performs a series of checks according to Eurocode 8, in order to ensure the satisfactory seismic performance of the selected upgrade scheme. The parameters that are addressed within this software as independent variables are: the geometry of the overpass, the number of bearings at each deck support, the level of seismic action and the characteristics of the bearings (i.e. their geometry and shear modulus). The final selection of the bearing scheme (in terms of number of bearings and bearing dimensions at each support) is based on a costbenefit criterion aiming at optimizing structural performance at minimum cost. The methodology proposed for the preliminary design of seismically isolated overpasses and the software developed were validated through more rigorous dynamic analyses employing multi-degree of freedom numerical simulations of realistic bridge overpasses.
This article investigates the response of Integral Abutment Bridges (IAB) when subjected to a sequence of seasonal thermal loading of the deck followed by ground seismic shaking in the longitudinal direction. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of pre-seismic thermal Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) on the seismic performance of the IAB, as well as on the ability of various backfills configurations, to minimize the unfavorable SSI effects. A series of two-dimensional numerical analyses were performed for this purpose, on a complete backfill-integral bridge-foundation soil system, subjected to seasonal cyclic thermal loading of the deck, followed by ground seismic shaking, employing ABAQUS. Various backfill configurations were investigated, including conventional dense cohesionless backfills, mechanically stabilized backfills and backfills isolated by means of compressive inclusions. The responses of the investigated configurations, in terms of backfill deformations and earth pressures, and bridge resultants and displacements, were compared with each other, as well as with relevant predictions from analyses, where the pre-seismic thermal SSI effects were neglected. The effects of pre-seismic thermal SSI on the seismic response of the coupled IAB-soil system were more evident in cases of conventional backfills, while they were almost negligible in case of IAB with mechanically stabilized backfills and isolated abutments. Along these lines, reasonable assumptions should be made in the seismic analysis of IAB with conventional sand backfills, to account for pre-seismic thermal SSI effects. On the contrary, the analysis of the SSI effects, caused by thermal and seismic loading, can be disaggregated in cases of IAB with isolated backfills.
An unconventional retrofitting measure is proposed for existing bridges, which has the ability to reduce the seismic actions. This is mainly achieved by an external restraining system consisting of IPE-steel piles driven in the existing backfill soil and a restraining slab. The slab interacts with the deck slab of the existing multi-span simply supported (MSSS) bridge system and transmits part of its seismic actions to the piles and therefore to the backfill soil, which has the ability to dissipate part of the induced seismic energy. The proposed unconventional restraining system was implemented and analytically assessed in an existing MSSS bridge system. The study showed that the unconventional restraining system has the ability to reduce effectively the actions and to enhance the earthquake resistance of the existing bridge.
Interest in integral abutment bridges (IABs) from the industry has increased in recent years. IABs are robust bridges without joints and bearings and hence they are durable and virtually maintenance free; moreover, the resulting cost-saving associated with their construction is significant, a fact that makes IABs appealing to agencies, contractors and consultants. However, their use in long-span bridges is limited by the complex soil–structure interaction. Thermal movements, horizontal loads and dynamic actions are transferred directly to the backfill soil, leading to settlements, ratcheting effects, high earth pressures and deterioration of the backfill soil. The longer the integral bridge the greater the challenge, as movements are increased. This paper provides an extended review of the techniques used in the international literature and in practice to alleviate the interaction between a bridge abutment and the backfill. Subsequently, the performance of an innovative isolation system for IABs using recycled tyres as a compressible inclusion is studied using detailed numerical models of a representative three-span IAB. The proposed isolation scheme was found to be an effective and sustainable method to isolate the structure from the backfill soil, reducing the pressures experienced by the abutments and the residual vertical displacements of the backfill soil.
An analytical investigation is performed aiming at identifying the applicability and the seismic efficiency of an unconventional abutment, which restrains the seismic movements of the bridge deck. The abutment consists of the extension of the deck slab of the bridge onto transversely directed R/C walls with which the, so-called continuity slab, is monolithically connected. The restraining walls play the role of an additional horizontal and relatively flexible support of the deck of the bridge. The design of these restraining walls is based on two criteria referring to on one hand the accommodation of the in-service induced longitudinal movements of the deck and on the other hand on the earthquake loading of the walls. The walls are constructed in a concrete box-shaped substructure, which replaces the conventional wing-walls and retains the backfill material. The foundation of the abutment is checked and found to have adequate resistance against sliding and overturning. The proposed abutment was attempted to be implemented in a precast I-beam bridge. The study showed that the abutment can achieve a desirable control of the seismic movements of the deck and therefore reduces the seismic actions of the bearings, the piers and their foundation. The restraining effect of the abutment is also significant even in stiffer bridge resisting systems. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.
The exposure of critical transport infrastructure to natural hazards and climate change effects has severe consequences on world economies and societies and, thus, safety and resiliency of transport networks are of paramount importance. The currently available frameworks for quantitative risk and resiliencebased design and assessment have been mainly developed for bridges exposed to earthquakes. However, there is an absence of well-informed exposure, vulnerability, functionality and recovery models, which are the main components in the quantification of resilience. The present paper proposes an integrated framework for the data- driven resilience assessment of transport infrastructure exposed to multiple hazards by using multiscale monitoring data, such as terrestrial and airborne data, as well as open-access crowd data and environmental measurements. Monitoring and early warnings are expected to produce accurate and rapidly informed quantitative risk and resilience assessments for transport infrastructure and to enhance asset management. Therefore, this framework aims to facilitate stakeholders’ decision-making for daily and catastrophic events and to support adaptation and preparedness with preventive and/or retrofitting measures against multiple hazards.
The current design of seismically isolated bridges usually combines the use of bearings and stoppers, as a second line of defence. The stoppers allow the development of the in-service movements of the bridge deck, without transmitting significant loads to the piers and their foundations, while during earthquake they transmit the entire seismic action. Despite the fact that stoppers, which restrain the transverse seismic movements of the deck, are used frequently in seismically isolated bridges, the use of longitudinal stoppers is relatively rare, mainly due to the large in-service constraint movements of bridges. The present paper proposes a new type of external longitudinal stoppers, which are installed in stiff sub-structures-boundaries, aiming at limiting the bridge seismic movements. The parametric investigation, which was conducted in order to identify the seismic efficiency of the external stoppers, showed that the interaction of the bridge with the stiff boundaries can lead to significant reductions in the seismic movements of the bridge. Serviceability is appropriately arranged in the paper by expansion joints and approach slabs. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
The design of structural systems depends on a wide range of compliance criteria. More specifically, with respect to earthquake resistant bridges, the issue of economy, i.e. the cost-effectiveness, is mostly influenced by the design concept, that is the selection of the optimum structural system, which is related to specific conditions and requirements. The study presents part of the results of an extended investigation program, conducted for Egnatia Odos SA, which manages the major and longest motorway in Northern Greece. The scope of the investigation program was to assess the range of cost of different bridge systems, designed to low and high seismic actions. The present paper focuses on the cost-effectiveness of four different bridge earthquake resisting systems: (a) a seismically isolated bridge, whose deck is supported on all the piers and abutments through low damping rubber bearings, (b) a "semi-integral" bridge, (c) a "quasi-integral" bridge, which was the "reference" bridge, and (d) a "fully integral" bridge, with full-height abutments, which are rigidly connected to the deck. The accommodation of both serviceability and earthquake resistance of bridge systems was studied with the objective of minimizing their structural and final costs. © 2010.
Vulnerability is a fundamental component of risk and its understanding is important for characterising the reliability of infrastructure assets and systems and for mitigating risks. The vulnerability analysis of infrastructure exposed to natural hazards has become a key area of research due to the critical role that infrastructure plays for society and this topic has been the subject of significant advances from new data and insights following recent disasters. Transport systems, in particular, are highly vulnerable to natural hazards, and the physical damage of transport assets may cause significant disruption and socioeconomic impact. More importantly, infrastructure assets comprise Systems of Assets (SoA), i.e. a combination of interdependent assets exposed not to one, but to multiple hazards, depending on the environment within which these reside. Thus, it is of paramount importance for their reliability and safety to enable fragility analysis of SoA subjected to a sequence of hazards. In this context, and after understanding the absence of a relevant study, the aim of this paper is to review the recent advances on fragility assessment of critical transport infrastructure subject to diverse geotechnical and climatic hazards. The effects of these hazards on the main transport assets are summarised and common damage modes are described. Frequently in practice, individual fragility functions for each transport asset are employed as part of a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) of the infrastructure. A comprehensive review of the available fragility functions is provided for different hazards. Engineering advances in the development of numerical fragility functions for individual assets are discussed including soil-structure interaction, deterioration, and multiple hazard effects. The concept of SoA in diverse ecosystems is introduced, where infrastructure is classified based on (i) the road capacity and speed limits and (ii) the geomorphological and topographical conditions. A methodological framework for the development of numerical fragility functions of SoA under multiple hazards is proposed and demonstrated. The paper concludes by detailing the opportunities for future developments in the fragility analysis of transport SoA under multiple hazards, which is of paramount importance in decision-making processes around adaptation, mitigation, and recovery planning in respect of geotechnical and climatic hazards.
This paper provides a review of the different methodologies for the fragility assessment of critical transportation infrastructure subjected to earthquake excitations with emphasis placed on geotechnical effects. Available approaches to fragility analysis are summarized, along with the main parameters and limitations. Additionally, definitions of damage are synthesized for the individual transportation assets and subsequently the definition of system of assets (SoA) is introduced. Numerical fragility curves are developed for a representative SoA subjected to seismic excitations. The paper concludes with the gaps in the area of fragility analysis and the needs for future development.
Reuse of the 1.5 billion waste tyres that are produced annually is a one of the major worldwide challenges, as waste tyres are toxic and cause pollution to the environment. In recognition of this problem, this paper introduces the reuse of tyres, in the form of derived aggregates in mixtures with granulated soil materials, as previous studies indicated the potential benefits of these materials in the seismic performance of structures. The objective of the present research study is to investigate whether use of rubberised backfills benefits the seismic response of Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs) by enhancing soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. Numerical models including typical integral abutments on surface foundation with nonlinear conventional backfill material and its alternative form as soil-rubber mixtures are analysed and their response parameters are compared. The research is conducted on the basis of parametric analysis, which aims to evaluate the influence of different rubber-soil mixtures on the dynamic response of the abutment-backfill system under various seismic excitations, accounting for dynamic soil-abutment interaction. The results provide evidence that the use of rubberised backfill leads to reductions in the backfill settlements, the horizontal displacements of the bridge deck, the residual horizontal displacements of the top of the abutment and the pressures acting on the abutment, up to 55%, 18%, 43% and 47% respectively, with respect to a conventional backfill comprising of clean sand. Considerable amount of decrease in bending moments and shear forces on the abutment wall is also observed. Therefore, rubberised backfills offer promising solution to mitigate the earthquake risk, towards economic design with minimal damage objectives for the resilience of transportation networks.
The exposure of critical infrastructure to natural hazards was proven to have severe consequences on world economies and societies. Therefore, resilience assessment of an infrastructure asset to extreme events and sequences of diverse hazards is of paramount importance for maintaining their functionality. However, the resilience assessment commonly assumes single hazards and one restoration strategy. In addition, owners and operators have different approaches for restoring their assets, depending on different factors, such as the available resources and their priorities, the importance of the asset and the level of damage. Yet, currently no integrated framework that accounts for the different strategies of restoration, and hence quantification of resilience in that respect exists. This paper proposes an integrated framework for the quantitative risk and resilience assessment of critical infrastructure, subjected to multiple natural hazards, considering the factors that reflect redundancy and resourcefulness in infrastructure, i.e., (i) the robustness to hazard actions, based on realistic fragility curves, and (ii) the rapidity of the recovery after the occurrence of damages, based on realistic restoration functions. Lastly, the paper includes an application of the proposed framework for a typical highway bridge for realistic multiple hazard scenarios and restoration strategies using a wellinformed resilience index.
A large number of bridges are constructed between tunnels. This co-existence can be developed in order to reduce the seismic actions of bridges, as their end parts can be restrained by the tunnels. This restrain requires the accommodation of the resulting serviceability problems, which are possible to be arranged by means of appropriate approach elements and expansion joints. In the present study, an appropriately configured approach element is proposed with which a semi-connection of the bridge with both tunnels is achieved. This approach slab is designed in a manner to accommodate both serviceability and earthquake resistance of the bridge. The proposed semi-connection of the bridge with the neighborhooding tunnels was proven to be efficient as the parametric investigation showed that the interaction of the bridge with the stiff tunnels can lead to reductions in the seismic actions of the bridge.
A wide field of study is open to new abutment configurations and design innovation as no unified procedure is available for the design and construction of integral abutment bridges (IABs). In this framework, an extended state-of the-art review on the configuration of IABs, with emphasis on the European Bridge Engineering, was done and two new integral abutments were studied. The primary feature of both integral abutments is the de coupling of the in-service response of the bridge from the backfill soil and the utilization of the backfill's resistance during earthquake, aiming at reducing the seismic demand on bridges. This objective was achieved by accommodating the in-service constraint movements of the deck through the flexibility of the IAB and via as small as possible clearances. During an earthquake the IABs interact with the backfill soil and reduce the displacements of the deck and thereby the seismic demand on bridge piers and foundations. Abutments will be useful in future design of intermediate to long-span bridges.
This paper investigates the potential tensile loads and buckling effects on rubber-steel laminated bearings on bridges. These isolation bearings are typically used to support the deck on the piers and the abutments and reduce the effects of seismic loads and thermal effects on bridges. When positive means of fixing of the bearings to the deck and substructures are provided using bolts, the isolators are exposed to the possibility of tensile loads that may not meet the code limits. The uplift potential is increased when the bearings are placed eccentrically with respect to the pier axis such as in multi-span simply supported bridge decks. This particular isolator configuration may also result in excessive compressive loads, leading to bearing buckling or in the attainment of other unfavourable limit states for the bearings. In this paper, an extended computer-aided study is conducted on typical isolated bridge systems with multi-span simply-supported deck spans, showing that elastomeric bearings might undergo tensile stresses or exhibit buckling effects under certain design situations. It is shown that these unfavourable conditions can be avoided with the rational design of the bearing properties and in particular of the shape factor, which is the geometrical parameter controlling the axial bearing stiffness and capacity for a given shear stiffness. Alternatively, the unfavourable conditions could be reduced by reducing the flexural stiffness of the continuity slab.
Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs) are jointless structures without bearings or expansion joints, which require minimum or zero maintenance. The barrier to the application of longspan IABs is the interaction of the abutment with the backfill soil during the thermal expansion and contraction of the bridge deck, i.e. serviceability, or when the bridge is subjected to dynamic loads, such as earthquakes. The interaction of the bridge with the backfill leads to settlements and ratcheting of the soil behind the abutment and, as a result, the soil pressures acting on the abutment build-up in the long-term. This paper provides a solution for the aforementioned challenges, by introducing a novel isolator that is a compressible inclusion (CI) of reused tyre derived aggregates (TDA) placed between the bridge abutment and the backfill. The compressibility of typical tyre derived aggregates was measured by laboratory tests and the compressible inclusion was designed accordingly. The CI was then applied to a typical integral frame abutment model, which was subjected to static and dynamic loads representing in-service and seismic loads correspondingly. The response of both the conventional and the isolated abutment was assessed based on the settlements of the backfill, the soil pressures and the actions of the abutment. The study of the isolated abutment showed that the achieved decoupling of the abutment from the backfill soil results in significant reductions of the settlements of the backfill and of the pressures acting on the abutment. Hence, the proposed research can be of use for extending the length limits of integral frame bridges subjected to earthquake excitations
Transportation infrastructure resilience is of paramount importance for societies and economies, therefore its quantification is urgently needed. Infrastructure assets and networks should be robust, i.e. they should have the ability to absorb the actions of natural hazards with minimal loss of functionality and thus should be designed to have redundancy for providing alternatives for damaged components. In addition, resilience enhancement requires the availability of resources and prioritization of goals, for rapid restoration of the affected assets functionality at an acceptable level. Hence, owners and operators would be benefited in the decision-making process from quantifications of resilience that account for different seismic events, the type and extent of expected damage, and the time of restoration. This paper is an application that takes into account the abovementioned factors in the resilience assessment of representative bridges in Thessaloniki, Greece, exposed to earthquakes. In particular, this application quantifies the robustness of bridges against different seismic hazard scenarios, by utilizing realistic fragility curves and the rapidity of the recovery and/or retrofitting after the occurrence of a certain degree of damage, based on realistic restoration functions. Two different approaches for the modelling of the restoration tasks are examined. Resilience assessment is based on a well-informed resilience index, which is a function of the time-variant functionality of the infrastructure over the restoration time for these scenarios. The results of this research are expected to facilitate owners to enhance decision-making and risk management toward more resilient infrastructure.
Transport infrastructure resilience and risk assessment is typically based on the assessment of individual assets rather than the entire system. We introduce the concept of the infrastructure System of Assets (SoA), or ecosystem, referring to non-urban roads, illustrate the individual elements of the system, and the geotechnical and climatic hazards to which it is subject. The infrastructure is classified based on: (i) the road capacity and speed limits and (ii) the geomorphological and topographical conditions. This classification covers the majority of non-urban networks, exposed to hazards such as earthquakes, floods, landslides (including slides, debris flow and rock fall), extreme temperatures and shrink/swell phenomena. This approach forms the basis for an integrated assessment of the fragility of the SoA rather than the individual elements. Numerical fragility curves are introduced, to articulate the vulnerability of the SoA, to various geohazards and a case study is presented for a bridge exposed to multiple hazards. This framework can contribute to future developments in the resilience management of the transportation network in respect of geotechnical and climatic hazards.
The exposure of critical infrastructure to natural and human-induced hazards has severe consequences on world economies and societies. Therefore, resilience assessment of infrastructure assets to extreme events and sequences of diverse hazards is of paramount importance for maintaining their functionality. Yet, the resilience assessment commonly assumes single hazards and ignores alternative approaches and decisions in the restoration strategy. It has now been established that infrastructure owners and operators consider different factors in their restoration strategies depending on the available resources and their priorities, the importance ofof multiple hazards and their impacts, the different strategies of restoration, 29 and hence the quantification of resilience in that respect exists and this is an acknowledged gap that needs urgently filling. This paper provides, for the first time in the literature, a classification of multiple hazard sequences considering their nature and impacts. Subsequently, a novel framework for the quantitative resilience assessment of critical infrastructure, subjected to multiple hazards is proposed, considering the vulnerability of the assets to hazard actions, and the rapidity of the damage recovery, including the temporal variability of the hazards. The study puts forward a well-informed asset resilience index, which accounts for the full, partial or no restoration of asset damage between the subsequent hazard occurrences. The proposed framework is then applied on a typical highway bridge, which is exposed to realistic multiple hazard scenarios, considering pragmatic restoration strategies. The case study concludes that there is a significant effect of the occurrence time of the second hazard on the resilience index and a considerable error when using simple superimposition of resilience indices from different hazards, even when they are independent in terms of occurrence. This potentially concerns all critical infrastructure assets and, hence, this paper provides useful insights for the resilience-based design and management of infrastructure throughout their lifetime, leading to cost savings and improved services. The paper concludes with a demonstration of the importance of the framework and how this can be utilised to estimate the resilience of networks to provide a quantification of the resilience at a regional and country scale.
Additional publications
Editorial
E.1) Domaneschi M & Mitoulis SA (2020) Editorial. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers–Bridge Engineering 173(2):61–62, https://doi.org/10.1680/jbren.2020.173.2.61
Journal articles
J.41) Stefanidou S, Mitoulis S, Argyroudis S (2021). Fragility of bridges in a multiple-hazard environment: The effect of scour depth and ground movement. Engineering Structures.
J.40) Kagioglou P, Katakalos K, Mitoulis SA (2021). Optimisation of a resilient connection for accelerated bridge construction. Structures. (under minor revisions)
J.39) Markogiannaki O, Chen F, Xu H, Mitoulis SA, Parcharidis I (2021). Monitoring of a landmark bridge using multitemporal SAR interferometry data coupled with engineering evidence.
J.38) Freddi F, Galasso C, Cremen G, Dall’Asta A, Di Sarno L, Giaralis A, Gutiérrez-Urzúa F, Málaga-Chuquitaype C, Mitoulis SA, Petrone C, Sextos A, Sousa L, Tarbali K, Tubaldi E, John Wardman, Woo G (2021) Innovation in earthquake risk reduction and resilience: some recent challenges and perspectives. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 102267, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102267
J.37) Argyroudis SA, Mitoulis SA (2021). Vulnerability of bridges to individual and multiple hazards - floods and earthquakes, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 107564. /j.ress.2021.107564
J.36) Mitoulis SA, Argyroudis S, Loli M, Imam B (2021). Restoration models for quantifying flood resilience of bridges. Engineering Structures, 238, 112180 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.112180
J.35) Mitoulis SA, Argyroudis SA (2021) Restoration models of flood resilient bridges: survey data. Data in Brief. 107088, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107088
J.34) McKenna G, Argyroudis SA, Winter MG, Mitoulis SA (2021). Multiple hazard fragility analysis for granular highway embankments: moisture ingress and scour. Transportation Geotechnics, 26: 100431 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2020.100431
J.33) Smith A, Argyroudis SA, Winter MG, Mitoulis SA (2021). Economic impact of bridge functionality loss from a resilience perspective: Queensferry Crossing. ICE Bridge Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1680/jbren.20.00041.
J.31) Argyroudis SA, Nasiopoulos G, Mantadakis N, Mitoulis SA (2020). Cost-based resilience assessment of bridges subjected to earthquakes. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, DOI 10.1108/IJDRBE-02-2020-0014.
J.30) Mitoulis SA (2020). Challenges and opportunities for the application of integral abutment bridges in earthquake-prone areas: A review. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 135, 106183.
J.29) Rele RR, Balmukund R, Mitoulis SA, Bhattacharya S (2020). Rocking isolation of bridge pier using shape memory alloy. IOS Press. Bridge Structures; 16(2-3); 85-103, DOI: 10.3233/BRS-200174.
J.28) Achillopoulou D, Mitoulis SA, Argyroudis S, Wang Y (2020). Monitoring of transport infrastructure: a road map toward resilience. Science of the Total Environment, 746, 141001.
J.27) Argyroudis SA, Mitoulis SA, Zanini MA, Hofer L, Tubaldi E, Frangopol DM (2020). Resilience assessment framework for critical infrastructure in a multi-hazard environment: Case study on transport assets. Science of the Total Environment 714;136854.
J.26) Kalfas K, Mitoulis SA, Konstantinidis D (2020). Influence of the steel reinforcement on the vulnerability of elastomeric bearings. ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 146(10): 04020195. DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0002710.
J.25) Sousa H, Mitoulis SA, Psarra K, & Tegos IA (2020). Control of long-term deflections of RC beams using reinforcements and low-shrinkage concrete. Proc. of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Bridge Engineering. 173(2):63-77.
J.24) Argyroudis S, Mitoulis SA, Winter M, Kaynia AM (2019). Fragility of transport assets exposed to multiple hazards: State-of-the-art review toward infrastructural resilience. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 191, 106567.
J.23) Rele RR, Dammala PK, Bhattacharya S, Balmukund R, Mitoulis SA (2019) Seismic behaviour of rocking bridge pier supported by elastomeric pads on pile foundation. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. 1;124:98-120.
J.22) Tsinidis G, Papantou M, Mitoulis SA (2019). Response of integral abutment bridges under a sequence of thermal loading and seismic shaking. Earthquakes and Structures. 16(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/eas.2019.16.1.000
J.21) Caristo A, Barnes J, Mitoulis SA (2018). Numerical modelling of integral abutment bridges under a large number of seasonal thermal cycles. ICE Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Bridge Engineering. 171(3):179-190
J.20) Tubaldi E, Mitoulis SA, Ahmadi H (2018). Comparison of different models for high damping rubber bearings in seismically isolated bridges. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 104: 329–345 .
J.19) Kalfas KN, Mitoulis SA (2017). Performance of steel-laminated rubber bearings subjected to combinations of axial loads and shear strains. Procedia Engineering 199:2979–2984, DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.533.
J.18) Mitoulis SA, Rodriguez JR (2017). Seismic Performance of Novel Resilient Hinges for Columns and Application on Irregular Bridges. ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 22(2).
J.17) Kalfas K, Mitoulis SA, Katakalos (2017). Numerical study on the response of steel-laminated elastomeric bearings subjected to variable axial loads and development of local tensile stresses. Engineering Structures, 134:346-357.
J.16) Mitoulis SA, Palaiochorinou A, Georgiadis I, Argyroudis S (2016). Extending the application of integral frame abutment bridges in earthquake prone areas by using novel isolators of recycled materials, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 45(14):2283-2301, DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2760.
J.15) Tubaldi E, Mitoulis SA, Ahmadi H Muhr A (2016). A parametric study on the axial behaviour of elastomeric isolators in multi-span bridges subjected to horizontal excitation, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 14(4):1285-1310.
J.14) Argyroudis S, Palaiochorinou A Mitoulis S, Pitilakis D (2016). Use of rubberised backfills to enhance the seismic response and SSI effects on integral abutment bridges, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 14(2):3573–3590.
J.13) Mitoulis SA (2016). Some open issues in the seismic design of bridges to Eurocode 8-2, Challenge Journal of Structural Mechanics, 2(1): 7–13, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20528/cjsmec.2016.02.002.
J.12) Mitoulis SA, Ataria RB (2016). Effect of waste tyre rubber additive on concrete mixture strength, British Journal of Environmental Sciences, 4(4):11-18.
J.11) Mitoulis SA (2015). Uplift of elastomeric bearings in isolated bridges subjected to longitudinal seismic excitations, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering: Maintenance, Management, Life-Cycle Design and Performance, 11(12).
J.10) Mitoulis SA (2012). Seismic design of bridges with the participation of seat-type abutments, Engineering Structures, 44:222-233.
J.09) Mitoulis SA, Titirla M, Tegos ΙΑ (2014). Design of bridges utilizing a novel earthquake resistant abutment with high capacity wing walls, Engineering Structures, 66:35-44
J.08) Mitoulis SA, Tegos ΙΑ, Stylianidis Κ-C (2013). A new scheme for the seismic retrofit of multi-span simply supported (MSSS) bridges, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 9(7):719–732.
J.07) Manos GC, Mitoulis SA, Sextos A (2012). A Knowledge-Based software for the design of the seismic isolation system of bridges, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 10(3):1029-1047.
J.06) Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA (2011). Two new earthquake resistant integral abutments for medium to long-span bridges, Structural Engineering International: Journal of the Intern Assoc for Bridge and Structural Eng (IABSE) 21 (2), pp 157-161.
J.05) Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA, K-C Stylianidis (2010). Cost-effectiveness related to the earthquake resisting system of multi-span bridges, Engineering Structures, 32(9):2658-2671.
J.04) Tegou SD, Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA, (2010). An unconventional earthquake resistant abutment with transversely directed R/C walls, Engineering Structures, 32(11):3801-3816.
J.03) Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA (2010). An unconventional restraining system for limiting the seismic movements of isolated bridges, Engineering Structures, 32(4):1100-1112.
J.02) Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA (2010). Connection of bridges with neighbour-hooding tunnels, Journal of Earthquake Engineering (JEE), 1559-808X, 14(3):331-350.
J.01) Mitoulis SA, Tegos IA (2010). Restrain of a seismically isolated bridge by external stoppers, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 8(4):973-993.
Conference proceedings
C.71) Kalfas KN, Mitoulis SA, Konstantinidis D (2021) A novel damage index considering the effect of steel reinforcement on the inelastic behaviour of rubber bearings, IABSE 2021 Ghent.
C.70) Kalfas KN, Mitoulis SA, Konstantinidis D (2021) Resilience of natural rubber bearings, ICONHIC 2021.
C.69) Mitoulis SA, Argyroudis S, Loli M (2021) Restoration functions for quantifying the resilience of bridges exposed to scour, ASCE Lifelines Conference. University of California LA, USA.
C.68) Mitoulis SA & Achillopoulou DV (2021) Structural and Functionality Monitoring for building resilience in transport infrastructure, ASCE Lifelines Conference. University of California LA, USA.
C.67) Achillopoulou D, Mitoulis SA, Stamataki NK (2020) Resilience monitoring of the structural performance of reinforced concrete bridges using guided waves, IABMAS2020, Japan.
C.66) Argyroudis S, Achillopoulou D, Livina V, Mitoulis SA (2020). Data-driven resilience assessment for transport infrastructure exposed to multiple hazards by integrating monitoring systems, IABMAS2020, Japan.
C.65) Kalfas KN, Mitoulis SA, Forcellini D (2020) Comparative study between numerical simulations and analytical models of nonlinear elastomeric bearings. EURODYN 2020, Greece.
C.64) Tubaldi E, Lupo R, Mitoulis S, Argyroudis S, Gara F, Ragni L, Carbonari S, Dezi F (2019). Field tests on a soil-foundation-structure system subjected to scour. ANIDIS2019.
C.63) Argyroudis S, Winter MG, Mitoulis SA (2019) Transport infrastructure ecosystems and their vulnerability to geohazards. XVII ECSMGE-2019 Geotechnical Engineering foundation of the future ISBN 978-9935-9436-1-3, Iceland
C.62) Argyroudis S, Hofer L, Zanini MA, Mitoulis SA (2019). Resilience of critical infrastructure for multiple hazards: Case study on a highway bridge. ICONHIC 2019 Chania, Greece
C.61) Nasiopoulos G, Mantadakis N, Pitilakis D, Argyroudis SA, Mitoulis SA (2019). Resilience of bridges subjected to earthquakes: A case study on a portfolio of road bridges. ICONHIC 2019 Chania, Greece
C.60) Ibrahim H, Baladas A, Mitoulis SA (2019). Bridge-abutment-backfill interaction: beneficial or detrimental for integral abutment bridges? COMPDYN 2019 Crete, Greece
C.59) Mitoulis S, Argyroudis S, Lamb R (2019). Risk and resilience of bridgeworks exposed to hydraulic hazards, IABSE2019-New York, September 4-6
C.58) Yuan V, Argyroudis S, Tubaldi E, Pregnolato M, Mitoulis SA (2019). Fragility of bridges exposed to multiple hazards and impact on transport network resilience. SECED2019 London
C.57) Argyroudis S, Mitoulis SA, Winter M, Kaynia AM (2018) Fragility assessment of transportation infrastructure systems subjected to earthquakes. GEESDV 2018, Austin, Texas USA, June 10-13, 2018.
C.56) Tsinidis G, Rele RR, Mitoulis SA, Bhattacharya S (2018) Seismic Performance of Resilient Bridge Foundation using Elastomeric Pads. 16ECEE, Thessaloniki Greece, paper No 283.
C.55) Argyroudis S, Mitoulis SA, Winter M, Kaynia AM (2018) Fragility of Critical Transportation Infrastructure Systems Subjected to Geo-Hazards. 16ECEE, Thessaloniki Greece, paper No 1964.
C.54) Mitoulis SA (2017) Design of Integral Abutment Bridges in earthquake-prone areas-Challenges and Opportunities. SeismiCON 2017- 1st International Conference on Seismic Design of Structures and Foundations.
C.53) Rele RR, D Pradeep D, Mitoulis SA, Bhattacharya S (2017) Seismic Response of Resilient Pier on Pile Foundation, Indian Geotechnical Conference 2017 GeoNEst, 14-16 December 2017, IIT Guwahati, India.
C.52) Forcellini D, Mitoulis SA and Kalfas K (2017) Study on the response of elastomeric bearings with 3D Numerical simulations and experimental validation. COMPDYN 2017, Rhodes Greece.
C.51) Titirla M, Zarkadoulas N, Mitoulis SA, Mylonakis G (2017) Rocking isolation of bridge piers on elastomeric pads. 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (16WCEE), Santiago, Chile.
C.50) Kalfas KN, Mitoulis SA, Katakalos K (2017) Study on the response of steel-laminated elastomeric bearings for seismic isolation of concrete bridge. 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (16WCEE), Santiago, Chile.
C.49) Mitoulis S (2016) Novel connection for accelerated bridge construction with dissipation and recentering capabilities, paper ID : 28, 1st International Conference on Resilience, 22-23 September, Torino, Italy
C.48) Rodriguez JR, Mitoulis SA (2016) Novel connection for accelerated bridge construction with dissipation and recentering capabilities, 1st International Conference on Natural Hazards & Infrastructure 28-30 June, 2016, Greece.
C.47) Mitoulis SA (2016) Resilient Designs for Bridges Subjected to Dynamic Loads. ICE Bridges 2016, London.
C.46) Caristo A, Palaiochornou A, Mitoulis SA (2016) Numerical research on the seismic response of novel integral abutment bridge designs. 1st International Conference on Natural Hazards & Infrastructure, 28-30 June, 2016, Greece.
C.45) Rodriguez JR and Mitoulis SA (2016) Novel connection for accelerated bridge construction with dissipation and recentering capabilities. 1st International Conference on Natural Hazards & Infrastructure, 28-30 June, 2016, Greece.
C.44) Mitoulis S (2015) Technical Report: A multi-level criterion to enhance the resilience of bridge bearings under earthquake excitations, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1719.8966.
C.43) Mitoulis S (2015) Some open issues in the seismic design of bridges to Eurocode 8-2, ICE SECED Conference Earthquake Risk and Engineering towards a Resilient World, 9-10 July 2015, Homerton College, Cambridge, UK.
C.42) Mitoulis S, Argyroudis S, Kowalsky M (2015) Evaluation of the stiffness and damping of abutments to extend Direct Displacement Based Design to the design of integral bridges, COMPDYN 2015, Greece.
C.41) Cui L, Mitoulis S. (2014) DEM analysis of Green rubberised backfills towards future smart bridges, IS-Cambridge 2014, 1-3 September 2014. Cambridge, UK.
C.40) Nikitas G, Bhattacharya S, Hyodo M, Konja A, Mitoulis S (2014) Use of rubber for improving the performance of domestic buildings against seismic liquefaction EURODYN 2014: IX Portugal.
C.39) Mitoulis S (2014) Extending the length limits of earthquake resistant integral abutment bridges. In Proc. Earthquakes: from Mechanics to Mitigation, The 2014 New Advances in Geophysics, Geological Society London, UK.
C.38) Mitoulis S, Muhr A and Ahmadi H (2014). Uplift of elastomeric bearings in isolated bridges - A possible mechanism: Effects and Remediation. 15 European Conference on Earthquake Engineering.
C.37) Mitoulis S, Argyroudis S and Pitilakis K (2014). Green rubberised backfills to enhance the longevity of integral abutment bridges. 15 European Conf on Earthquake Engineering.
IC.36) Mitoulis SA (2013) Bridges with fixities and bearings vs isolated systems, COMPDYN 4th International Conference in Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Kos, Greece, 12-14 June 2013.
IC.35) Argyroudis S.A., Mitoulis S.A. and Pitilakis KD (2013) Seismic response of bridge abutments on surface foundations subjected to collision forces, COMPDYN 4th International Conference in Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Kos, Greece, 12-14.
IC.34) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos I.A., Malekakis (2013) Analytical and experimental research on the capacity of bridge shear keys, COMPDYN 4th International Conference in Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Kos, Greece.
IC.33) Mitoulis S.A., Manos G.C. and Tegos IA (2013) Shaking table study of the seismic interaction of an isolated bridge deck with the abutment utilizing small-scale models and numerical simulations, COMPDYN 4th International Conference in Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Kos, Greece.
IC.32) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos I.A., (2013) “Seismic retrofitting of bridges based on indirect strategies”, International IABSE Conference, Rotterdam May 6 - 8, 2013, Assessment, Upgrading and Refurbishment of Infrastructures.
IC.31) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos I.A., (2013) “Design of long-span bridges without prestressing”, fib-CEB-FIP, International Federation for Structural Concrete, Symposium Tel Aviv, Israel, 22-24 April 2013, pp. no 292.
IC.30) Mitoulis S.A. (2012). “Seismic design of bridges with seat-type abutments considering the participation of the abutments during earthquake excitation”, In Proc., 15th WCEE - World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, paper No 555.
IC.29) Mitoulis S.A. (2012). “The inefficacy of seismic isolation in bridges with tall piers”, In Proc., 15th WCEE - World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, paper No 3944.
IC.28) Manos GC, Mitoulis SA, Koidis G. (2012) “A knowledge-based software for the preliminary design of seismically isolated bridges”, In Proc., 15th WCEE - World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, paper No 0272.
IC.27) Mitoulis SA, Titirla MD, Tegos IA. (2012) “A new earthquake resistant abutment as means to reduce the seismic demand of a railway bridge”, In Proc., 15th WCEE - World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, paper No 2393.
IC.26) Manos G.C., Mitoulis S.A., (2012). “Expert system for the preliminary design of a seismic isolation scheme for bridges”. In Proc., EACS 2012 – 5th European Conference on Structural Control, Genoa, Italy – 18-20 June 2012.
IC.25) Manos G.C., Mitoulis S.A., (2012). “Preliminary design of seismically isolated bridges through a specific software”. In Proc., 9th International Conference on Urban Earthquake Engineering/ 4th Asia Conference on Earthquake Engineering, March 6-8, 2012, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
IC.24) Tegos, I. A., and S. Mitoulis (2011) Design of Long-span Bridges with Conventional R/C decks." IBSBI Athens, Greece.
IC.23) Tegos, I., Markogiannaki, O., and Mitoulis, S. (2011). “Limiting seismic displacements of bridges by utilizing steel bars and the wingwalls”, Seoul, ASEM'11.
IC.22) Manos G.C., Mitoulis S.A., Sextos A.G., (2011). “Tests for the pilot production of elastomeric bearings in Greece-Software for the preliminary design of base isolated bridges”. In Proc., 12th World Conference on Seismic Isolation, Energy Dissipation and Active Vibration Control of Structures, Sochi, Russia, September 20 – 23, 2011.
IC.21) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., (2011) “Design of long-span bridges with conventional reinforced concrete decks”. Conference: Innovations on Bridges and Soil-Bridge Interaction, IBSBI 2011, October 13-15, 2011, Athens, Greece.
IC.20) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., (2011) “An alternative proposal for the design of balanced cantilever bridges with small span lengths”. Conference: Innovations on Bridges and Soil-Bridge Interaction, IBSBI 2011, October 13-15, 2011, Athens, Greece.
IC.19) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., (2011) “A proposition for a new construction method for cast-in-situ multi-span integral bridges”. Conference: 35th International Symposium on Bridge and Structural Engineering, London, UK, September 20-23. Taller, Longer, Lighter, IABSE-IASS Symposium London 2011.
IC.18) Manos G.C., Mitoulis S.A., Sextos A.G., (2011). “Preliminary design of seismically isolated RC highway overpasses – features of relevant software and experimental testing of elastomeric bearings”. In Proc., III ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (COMPDYN 2011), 26-28 May, Corfu, Greece.
IC.17) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α. (2010) “An external restraining system for the seismic retrofit of existing bridges”. 9th US National & 10th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Toronto, Canada, 25-29 July 2010.
IC.16) Manos G.C, Sextos A.G., Mitoulis S.A., Geraki M., (2010) “Software for the preliminary design of seismically isolated R/C highway overpass bridges”. 9th US National & 10th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Toronto, Canada, 25-29 July 2010.
IC.15) Mitoulis S.A. and Tegos Ι.Α., (2009) “Connection of bridges with neighbor-hooding tunnels”. In Proc., Earthquake & Tsunami, WCCE-ECCE-TCCE Joint Conference, 22-24 June, Ιstanbul-Τurkey.
IC.14) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., Tegou S.D., (2009) “Analytical investigation on the earthquake resistance and serviceability performance of an external restrainer for bridges”. In Proc., Earthquake & Tsunami, WCCE-ECCE-TCCE Joint Conference, 22-24 June, Ιstanbul-Τurkey.
IC.13) Manos G.C., Sextos A., Mitoulis S., Kourtidis V., Geraki M., (2008) “Tests and improvements of bridge elastomeric bearings and software development for their preliminary design”. In Proc., 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China, Paper No 06-0171.
IC.12) Lelekakis G.E., Birda A.T., Mitoulis S.A., Chrysanidis T.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2008) “Applications of flat-slab R/C structures in seismic regions”. In Proc., Fifth European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures (5EWICS), Catania, Italy.
IC.11) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2008) “Connection of balanced cantilever bridges with neighbor-hooding tunnels”. In Proc., Fifth European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures (5EWICS), Catania, Italy.
IC.10) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., Tegou S.D., (2008) “A proposition for a complex earthquake resistant abutment for continuous deck slab long bridges”. In Proc., Fifth European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures (5EWICS), Catania, Italy.
IC.09) Tegos Ι., Stylianidis K., Mitoulis S., Gavaise E., Tsitotas M., (2007) “Earthquake resistance and cost-effectiveness of multi-span bridges”. In Proc., Improving infrastructure worldwide, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), Weimar, Germany, Paper No A-0713.
IC.08) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2007) “The problem of seismic strengthening of existing bridges”. In Proc., 4th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (4ICEGE), Thessaloniki, Greece, Paper No 1715.
IC.07) Tegos Ι.Α., Mitoulis S.A., (2007) “Seismic response analysis of highway bridges, including backfill-deck interaction, through improved participation of backfills”. In Proc., ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (COMPDYN), Rethymno, Crete, Greece, Paper No 1597.
IC.06) Manos G., Mitoulis S., Kourtidis V., Sextos A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2007) “Study of the behavior of steel laminated rubber bearings under prescribed loads”. In Proc., 10th World Conference on Seismic Isolation, Energy Dissipation and Active Vibrations Control of Structures, Istanbul, Turkey.
IC.05) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., Sextos A., (2006) “An alternative proposal for a “movable” abutment for integral bridges”. Proc., 1st European Conference on Earthquake Eng. and Seismology (ECEES), Geneva, Switzerland, Paper No 1377.
IC.04) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2006) “Seismic retrofitting of existing bridges through the restraining of the free movement by an external stopper.Proc., International Conference on Bridges (SECON), Dubrovnic, Croatia, Paper No 50.
IC.03) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2005) “Reduction of seismic actions in bridges by developing the pounding interaction between the deck and appropriately reformed abutments”. Proc., Earthquake Engineering in 21st Century (EE-21C), Ohrid, Paper No T5-13.
IC.02) Tegos I., Sextos A., Mitoulis S., Tsitotas M., (2005) “Contribution to the improvement of seismic performance of integral bridges”. Proc., 4th European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures, Thessaloniki, Greece, Paper No 38.
IC.01) Mitoulis S.A., Tegos Ι.Α., (2005) “Reduction of inertial seismic forces in bridges by using the abutment backwall as a “yielding” stopper”. Proc., Earthquake Resistant Eng. Structures (ERES), Skiathos, Greece, Chapter V, 507-520.
Book chapters
B.3) Manos GC and Mitoulis SA (2013) Preliminary design of seismically isolated R/C bridges-Features of relevant expert system and experimental testing of elastomeric bearings, Computational Methods in Earthquake Engineering Computational Methods in Applied Sciences Volume 30, 2013, pp 491-519.
B.2) Tegos ΙΑ, Stylianidis KC, Mitoulis SA, (2010) “The influence of the design seismic action on the structural cost of Egnatia Highway Bridges”. Chapter in “Aseismic design and construction in Egnatia Odos, the highway connecting Epirous through Macedonia to Thrace and the eastern border of Greece”, Hellenic Society for Earthquake Engineering, Ziti Publications, Thessaloniki, Greece, ISBN: 978-960-99529-0-3, Editor: A.J. Kappos.
B.1) Mitoulis SA, Tegos ΙΑ and Tsitotas MA, (2010) “Integral abutment configurations for Arahthos-Peristeri Bridge (Bridge T5, Length 240.0m) of Egnatia Highway”. Chapter in “Aseismic design and construction in Egnatia Odos, the highway connecting Epirous through Macedonia to Thrace and the eastern border of Greece”, Hellenic Society for Earthquake Engineering, Ziti Publications, Thessaloniki, Greece, ISBN: 978-960-99529-0-3, Editor: A.J. Kappos.