Study on the Elastomeric Behavior of Bridge Bearing Pad

Bridges are socio-economically important structures subjected to continuous static and dynamic loads due to vehicular movement. Other extreme loads like earthquake and wind loads are considered depending on the locality of bridges. Among all the components of bridge, bearing is a composite structural component which helps in the load transfer from superstructure to substructure. In this study, the response of bearing pads with change in the hyper-elastic material property and thickness of elastomer is investigated using numerical method. The bearing pad is modelled as a composite material of elastomer and steel plate. The dimensions of the bearing are ascertained for the study by considering a typical loading condition for a single span bridge as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) specifications. The static and moving load responses are obtained from the global analysis of the bridge using CSi Bridge software. Further, the finite element analysis of the bearing pad is done in ABAQUS to understand the behavior under different hyper-elastic material models and thickness of elastomer. The study gives insight in bearing response for variations in material models and thickness of elastomer through finite element analysis.