FORENSIC STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

CASE STUDIES
CASE N° 37
HANSHIN VIADUCT (KOBE) (II)

MARTIN POLIMENI
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
EEPP SA
eeppsaingenieria@gmail.com
 HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
On January 17, 1995, the Hanshin viaduct, Kobe, Japan, collapsed during
an earthquake.
.
 HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
Principal causes: Consequences:
• Buckling of steel box piers due to o 42 people dead and many
seismic action. people injured (all the viaduct).
HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
Principal structural system of steel
piers.
Welded steel box columns and caps.
Bolted splices.

Collapse sequence
 HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)

Failed pier due to seismic action.

HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
Strain-N curves of different models of
Ultra low cycle fatigue process.
In steel box pier columns, ductile crack
initiation and propagation occurs
before or after local buckling, due to
ultra low cycle fatigue due to seismic
action at strain concentration regions.
HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)

Ductile fracture
process in steel
bridge piers.
Crack initiation,
propagation and
failure was detected
in a test specimen
(steel box column /
base plate).
 HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)

Ductile fracture
process. Ultra
(extreme) low
cycle fatigue due
to seismic
actions.
Different fracture
mechanisms.
HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
Unified
seismic
performance
method
including
local buckling
and ductile
crack
initiation.
HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)

The useful service life is reduced by

seismic action when it is coupled with
the live load action.
The crack propagation curves reach
the failures point at less total number
of cycles (years post earthquake).
 HANSHIN VIADUCT COLLAPSE (II)
Lessons learned:
 The main cause of the collapse was the buckling of steel box piers columns
due to seismic action. This was another type of structural pier failures that
occurred in the Hanshin viaduct (the other type was the typically shear
failure of RC piers).
 Steel piers collapsed, principally, by local buckling. Probably the buckling
capacity of the box sections also was weakened by a ultra low cycle fatigue
(less than a hundred). Ultra low cycle fatigue is a process governed by
cyclic high strains process (instead of the classic cyclic stress that governs
the high cycle fatigue process) and typically occurred in structure subjected
to seismic actions.
 The ultra low cycle fatigue process is not so usual in structural engineering
but it could be an important cumulative damage process in steel structures
(mainly, welded connections) subjected to seismic actions.
 Also, the useful service life is affected by ultra low cycle fatigue process.
The crack propagation curve shifts left in the da/dN diagram, when seismic
actions are coupled with the classic live load fatigue process (high cycle
fatigue).