A new concept of isolation bearings for highway steel bridges using shape memory alloys

Conventional lead–rubber bearings (LRB) may have a problem of instability and unrecovered deformation with a strong ground motion. To improve the problems, this study proposed a new concept of an isolation device in which shape memory alloy wires were incorporated in an elastomeric bearing. This study illustrated the behavior of shape memory alloy in tension and discussed the variation of stiffness and stress on the hyteresis curves. A three-span continuous steel bridge was used for seismic analyses to compare the performance of lead–rubber bearings with the proposed bearings. This study showed that large residual deformation of LRB occurred even with a weak ground motion of peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.2g. The proposed bearings effectively limited the relative displacement of the deck when tested for the strong ground motions and almost recovered the original undeformed shape. However, the proposed bearing increases the demand on bridge columns compared with the LRB.Key words: shape memory alloy, lead–rubber bearings, seismic bridge analysis, isolation device, residual deformation.