Pounding response spectra of bridge decks

Pounding induced damage to structures, either buildings or bridges, was observed extensively after the past earthquakes. Recent earthquakes that have struck the Italian territory have emphasized the necessity to account for this phenomenon during either the design or the seismic safety evaluation of existing bridges. For this reason, practitioners concerned with bridge structures should be provided with concise computational tools to correctly quantify the effects related to pounding. One such tool is represented by pounding spectra that were already introduced a couple of decades ago. This work presents the first results, obtained in the ambit of the work for a PhD thesis, to propose simplified equations for pounding-related displacement spectra. The first part of this paper presents the computational aspects of the carried out numerical analyses. The second part presents the results of those numerical analyses, in terms of displacement spectra, while the third part presents the first attempt to come up with simple expressions to let practitioners easily evaluate pounding related effects in terms of displacement amplifications with respect to the no-pounding condition.