Seismic vulnerability of a pedestrian crossing

What is it about?

We study the seismic vulnerability assessment of a multi-span footbridge, prone to span unseating due to shorter seat lengths. The structure is representative of a series of pedestrian crossings located in the Southern part of Portugal, a region with a relevant seismic activity.

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Why is it important?

Although footbridges are not usually considered as critical lifeline structures, their collapse due to span unseating during an event such as an earthquake can be critical, as it might cause severe lifelines interruption. Our findings show that, for a code compliance design acceleration, there is a significant probability that the structure will only suffer minor to moderate damage.

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