Previous earthquakes reveal that the sedimentary V-shaped canyon (SVC) may result in severe damage of canyon-crossing bridges (CCBs). The seismic response of CCB is affected by various parameters, including sedimentary soil characteristics and fault rupture mechanisms. However, these influential parameters of SVC on the seismic response of CCB have not been sufficiently studied in the existing literature. Thus, this study aims to identify the most influential factor on the seismic response of bridges across SVC using parametric analysis. For this purpose, the spectral element method (SEM) is adopted to simulate the wavefield of SVC considering the fault dynamic rupture. The characteristics of ground motions in the Forward region (FR) and the Middle region (MR) are investigated. The sensitivity of ground motions recorded in SVC to four main influential factors (i.e. shear wave velocity of sedimentary soil Vs, the ratio of sedimentary soil depth to canyon depth d/D, layer sequence O, and fault-to-canyon distance Rrup) is numerically evaluated. Furthermore, the parametric analysis is performed to estimate the impact of these influential parameters on the seismic response of a CCB. The results reveal that the amplitudes of pulse-type ground motions in the illuminated side of SVC increase with the decrease of Vs. As the Vs decreases from 2300 m/s to 400 m/s, the residual deformations of four bearings increase by 293 %, 93 %, 451 %, and 292 %, respectively. When the d/D is 0.3, the velocity pulse ground motions in SVC have the largest PGVs. The base shear of the piers in the case of d/D = 0.3 increases by more than 77.3 % compared to that without considering the sedimentary soil (d/D = 0). The inverted sequence may result in larger seismic responses of bearings and piers compared to normal sequence. Rrup has the most significant effect on the seismic response of CCBs. The higher-order effect and additional plastic hinges are more noticeable when Rrup is less than or equal to 7.5 km.

Previous earthquake events have indicated that bridge structures are more vulnerable to severe damage when subjected to near-fault pulse-like (NF-P) ground motions. Structural seismic damage will be exacerbated when bridges are located in liquefiable site. Meanwhile, the seismic response of bridges located in inclined liquefiable site is different from that of bridges in horizontal liquefiable site. This study focuses on exploring the seismic response of a ground-bridge structure system located in horizontal and inclined liquefiable site to the NF-P ground motions. The seismic response of the whole system to the near-fault non-pulse-like (NF-NP) and farfield (FF) ground motions is studied for comparison. Two three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models of the ground-structure system considering soil-pile interaction are developed. They are associated with the horizontal and inclined liquefiable site, respectively. The seismic responses of the ground-bridge structure system to the three different types of ground motions (i.e., NF-P, NF-NP and FF) are comprehensively evaluated from two perspectives. On the one hand, the seismic time history responses of the ground-bridge structure system under single representative ground motion are comprehensively assessed. On the other hand, the average responses of the ground-bridge structure system under multiple types of ground motions are explored. The results reveal that in contrast to the NF-NP and FF ground motions, the NF-P ground motions have more significant effect on various responses of the ground-bridge structure system. In addition, compared to the bridge in horizontal liquefiable site, the bridge in inclined liquefiable site exhibits larger seismic responses. Therefore, the velocity pulse effect of the NF-P ground motions and the liquefaction effect of the inclined site need to be emphasized in structural seismic design.

Three-sided underpass culverts are structural systems used to provide passing vehicle or pedestrian. It is of great importance that such infrastructure systems remain useable, especially after disasters such as earthquakes that can cause great destruction, in order to ensure that infrastructure services can be maintained continuously. In this context, the aim of this study is to investigate using finite element method (FEM) the dynamic responses of three-sided underpass culvert system under near-fault ground motions with velocity pulse and far-fault ground motions. For this aim, the modal analysis of the soil-underpass culvert interaction system has been realized using proposed soil-structure interaction (SSI) model. The frequencies of the interaction system obtained from the finite element model developed using proposed approaches have been verified comparing with the results obtained from the literature and the site periods. After showing that the modes of the interaction system can be obtained with the help of the proposed numerical model, the full transient dynamic analyses have been performed in the time history using five near-fault and far-fault records, considering four different soil systems. The comparisons shows that the variations of the soil systems and the ground motion type can significantly affect the top peak relative displacements and the dynamic stresses of the three-sided underpass culvert.