An efficient approach towards climate change impact on seismic fragility of aging bridges

In recent times, considerable number of researchers have been attentive to evaluating aging bridge vulnerability under seismic shaking. However, a majority of literature disregards the influence of initial in-situ temperature and relative humidity (that may be different than the reference laboratory conditions) on the time-varying degradation rate. Additionally, far too little attention has been paid to the joint impact of climate change on the seismic performance of aging bridges. Addressing the present needs, this study proposes a multi-hazard fragility assessment framework for highway bridges that jointly considers the influence of seismic shaking, structural deterioration due to chloride-induced, potential climate change, and influence of initial temperature and relative humidity. A seismic fragility metamodel is developed to aid in efficient computation of bridge vulnerability. Results reveal the potential impact of bridge geometry, the influence of initial temperature and relative humidity, and climate change on seismic fragility estimates of aging highway bridges.