Advance Numerical Analysis (Report 2)

Name: Muhammad Abrar Victoriawan

Student Number ID: 281978033

Q1: Explain your research topic briefly

Currently, my research revolves around developing a method to assess steel bridge redundancy
under seismic loading. Bridge redundancy is defined as the ability of a bridge to maintain its
function to carry loads (does not collapse) after the failure of one of its members. In the design of
bridges, bridge redundancy is often overlooked and current bridge design specification generally
focuses on the design of individual members instead of the bridge as a whole system. By
conducting a redundancy analysis on steel bridges, we will be able to understand the behaviour
of bridge structures in a more comprehensive manner and identify the members whose failure
would induce the largest effects on the bridge system. Consequently, we can obtain more
knowledge on how to prevent the collapse of a bridge system. So far, the procedure of performing
redundancy analysis only considers the static loading scheme i.e. bridges under vehicle loads. It
is equally important to develop a method to assess bridge redundancy analysis for seismic loading
schemes as damages incurred by large seismic loads may heavily damage bridge structures. The
goal of this research is to create a practical way to conduct such an analysis using finite-element
analysis software such as ABAQUS.

Q2: How can you apply SA and/or GA in your research?

Since bridge systems typically consist of an assembly of numerous structural member
components, their behaviour is generally difficult to comprehend under different loading schemes.
Simply speaking, there are many factors that need to be considered when assessing the
performance of a bridge system. Performing redundancy analysis includes the identification of
critical members whose failure may lead to the collapse of the bridge structure. However it is
generally difficult to accurately identify them. Applying SA or GA may be possible to identify which
members would yield the largest effect on the bridge system in various scenarios.

Creating and conducting an analysis of a whole bridge system under seismic load is a time
consuming process. One of the most important things to consider when conducting such an
analysis is assigning the appropriate mesh size. By assigning the appropriate mesh size of a
model we can save a lot of computational time while also ensuring that the results have sufficient
accuracy. How well a model is meshed is usually down to how experienced the engineer is. By
integrating the SA or GA method in the mesh generation module, meshing of models may be
done easier while also maximizing the output of the analysis.