PSI - Issue 62

Diana Salciarini et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 62 (2024) 514–521 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

515

2

in 2006 (Fig. 1a), triggered by a landslide. This event was initiated by the reactivation of an ancient landslide, generating an oblique force relative to the bridge's direction, and causing its total collapse (Salcedo 2009). Another documented case is the collapse of the Peace River highway suspension bridge (Fig. 1b) in Canada in 1957, which was caused by the movement of the northern anchorage block, sliding 3 meters downward on shale of the Shaftesbury Formation (Cruden et al., 2012). In various scenarios, landslides can cause severe structural damage, hindering the continuous use of the infrastructure. An illustrative example is the case of the Chediguan Bridge in China (Lu and Zhang, 2012), where a bridge pier, supported by two drilled shafts, collapsed due to the impact of a 130-ton rock in a landslide. These instances highlight the crucial importance of deepening our understanding of the impacts of landslides on infrastructure and developing design and intervention strategies aimed at consolidation and improving the safety of structures.

a)

b)

c c)

Fig. 1. (a) Caracas – La Guaira Highway Viaduct 1; (b) Peace River highway suspension bridge; (c) Chediguan Bridge.

The correlation between the type of landslide and the subsequent damage on the structure is not always easy to determine, given that landslides are complex phenomena that vary in aspects such as volume, type of movement, material, and orientation. Therefore, in order to contribute filling this knowledge gap, this paper first presents a statistical analysis of a series of real-world case studies located in different parts of the world, to highlight recurring conditions in such contexts. Based on these analyses, a three dimensional model has been also developed to simulate the rotational movement of a landslide triggered by an earthquake on a moderate slope, partially interfering with a viaduct located along its direction. The results highlight that the interaction between the landslide and the bridge can highly influence the structural demand, not only in quasi-static conditions but also in presence of seismic events. 2. Analysis of real case studies A thorough analysis was conducted based on 41 real-world case studies (Fig. 2) across diverse geographical areas and involving a range of structures, such as bridges and viaducts, interacting with different types of landslide movements (Gabrieli et al., 2024).

Fig. 2. Geographical distribution of 41 international cases of bridge-landslide interaction.