Determination of rebar effect on dynamic characteristics and dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete bridges

In this study, it is aimed to be searched the effect of the rebar on the structural behavior of reinforced concretebridges formed with the finite element method. For this purpose, the numerical model of the bridge withknown dimensions, material properties and rebar configuration was modeled using ANSYS finite elementanalysis program. In the first model, it was thought that the bridge was constructed using only concrete, rebarwas not taken into consideration. Then the same bridge was modelled without changing the boundaryconditions as if it was built by reinforced concrete material in which rebar and concrete were together andthe modal analyses were carried out on this model again. The dynamic characteristics of the two differentbridge models were determined using numerical methods and the effect of the rebar on these characteristicswas presented by comparing them with each other. When the results obtained were examined, it was foundthat the rebar had no significant effect on the modal behavior of the bridge. Thus, not taking into account therebar will provide a great convenience during the modeling stage. In addition, linear and nonlinear dynamicanalyzes were performed on the reinforced and unreinforced finite element models of the bridge using theeffective earthquake acceleration record of the Erzincan earthquake of 1992 and structural behavior wasevaluated. The results are presented in comparison with the graphs and tables in this paper.