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With a new era emerging in the field of lunar exploration and habitation, there is a need for research on structural forms made of local soil material (regolith), which will be able to endure the extreme conditions in harsh environments (e.g., extreme temperature fluctuations, solar and cosmic radiation, meteor showers, strong ground motions, etc.). The present work focuses on understanding the dynamic and seismic behaviour of certain structural typologies of monolithic arches by means of finite element analysis (FEA). These typologies were extensively investigated previously, using static analyses accounting for the reduced gravitational field on the moon, and proved to be of the optimum shape against certain loading scenarios. Specifically, these optimal monolithic arch forms (named enhanced varying‐thickness arches – EVTAs) examined herewith, are described by varying‐thickness geometry, properly enhanced at certain weak points for increasing their structural stability. Aiming at a fair comparison, the seismic behaviour of EVTAs is contrasted to that of their corresponding monolithic constant‐thickness (CTAs) counterparts (having the same amount of structural material). After defining an appropriate damage state, the authors conduct preliminary pushover analyses to determine the structural capacity of the arches against lateral loading. Subsequently, the modal analysis of the EVTAs shows that the second/vertical mode exhibits a natural period almost equal to that of their first/translational mode and substantially longer than the corresponding second/vertical mode of their CTA counterparts, indicating a potential vulnerability along the vertical excitation. Furthermore, taking into account that shallow moonquakes are comparable to intraplate earthquakes in terms of hazard potential, the authors produce sets of stochastic seismic excitations used as time histories for seismic analyses. The probability of exceedance of the defined damage state as a function of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) is presented through indicative fragility curves, where the structural superiority of EVTAs against their CTA counterparts is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the eigenvalues of multi-span seismically isolated bridges in which the transverse displacement of the deck at the end abutments is restricted. With this constraint the deck is fully isolated along the longitudinal direction, whereas along the transverse direction the deck is a simple-supported beam at the end abutments which enjoys concentrated restoring forces from the isolation bearings at the center piers. For moderate long bridges, the first natural period of the bridge is the first longitudinal period, while the first transverse period is the second period, given that the flexural rigidity of the deck along the transverse direction shortens the isolation period offered by the bearings in that direction. This paper shows that for isolated bridges longer than a certain critical length, the first transverse period becomes longer than the first longitudinal period despite the presence of the flexural rigidity of the deck. This critical length depends on whether the bridge is isolated on elastomeric bearings or on spherical sliding bearings. This result is also predicted with established commercially available numerical codes only when several additional nodes are added along the beam elements which are modeling the deck in-between the bridge piers. On the other hand, this result cannot be captured with the limiting idealization of a beam on continuous distributed springs (beam on Wrinkler foundation)-a finding that has practical significance in design and system identification studies. Finally, the paper shows that the normalized transverse eigenperiods of any finite-span deck are self-similar solutions that can be represented by a single master curve and are independent of the longitudinal isolation period or on whether the deck is supported on elastomeric or spherical sliding bearings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]