{JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Taylor & Francis tpg rg/10.080/13852455 200 1668363 yess crap [Bicmtireen| Wavelet-Based Analysis for Detection of Isolation Bearing Malfunction in a Continuous Multi-Span Girder Bridge Dionysius M. Siringoringo®@ and Yozo Fujino® Institute of Advanced Sciences, Yokohama National University, Kanagawa, Japan This paper defies techniques for detwcngbewng matin dreaty Maciel uy ze onthe seule response of the ge ane weve tansfotm tre, stb Dead 200 SAT Sar a Sees SoS MUTE oo Gea fomporans of doawa wenlee canst sree eosewcure SHOE See ah ee ORES ssa i See ee SU: ee eee a eS I RTGm siieces ce: ee TRE Sea ENERGIE womens er area onion oe ces neal eR oaraoet a eee an Rare aetna aaa ee en eer ae ee oe aa 1. Introduction Scismically isolated bridges are popular in many countries with high risk of earthquakes. In Japan, the use of seismic isolation for highway bridges has increased significantly after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Scismic isolation system increases natural periods of the bridges and reduces the effect of inertia force from superstructures on the substructures, The use of seismic isolation system on mult-span continuous bridges has increased significantly in Japan after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Notable examples are the ‘Ohito Viaduct, a29-span continuous prestressed concrete girder bridge with a total length of 725 m and ‘Tenryu-River Bridge, a 23-span continuous prestressed concrete girder bridge with a (otal length of 1585 m, The isolation system improves the seismic performance of the bridges and makes multi-span continuation of superstructures easier because the horizontal force which acts on bridge piers by temperature change can be reduced using elastic seismic bearings (Unjoh 2014), Bridges with seismic isolation and elastomeric bearings generally performed well under extreme ground motions, During the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, for example, only very few of them were damaged by the earthquake (Kawashima and Buckle 2013; Kitehara, Kajita, and Kitane 2012). Past observation and monitoring experiences, however, revealed that the behavior of seismically isolated bridges is significantly influenced by structural details of isolation bearing system such as metallic bearings, side stoppers and bearing keeper plates (Chaudhary, Abe, and Fujino 20022; Fujino, Sitingoringo, and Abe 2016). In some cases, such as the Onneto bridge, steel plate girders became locked with the transverse side stopper on several bearings, and as a result, the deck was not isolated completely from the pier (Chaudhary, Abé, and Fujino 2002b; Fujino, Siringoringo, and Abe 2016). ‘The locking of isolation bearings at one or more pier during a large earthquake would result in unexpected lateral load redistribution to the substructure because significant inertia force of super- structure will be transmitted to the substructure, This unwanted condition should be identified as early as possible and mitigated to avoid further malfunction of the isolation beatings at larger earthquake. CONTACT Dionysus M Sungoringo @ cionaynu acjo G Dionsis Siingorngo state of Advanced Sciences, Yokohama National Univesity, 79-1 Tokwadal Hodogaa-ku Yokchama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan. © 2021 Tle rans croup, LC2 © bam stanconwco AND Fuso ‘With recent advancement in the structural monitoring system, more seismically isolated bridges are instrumented, and their structural responses subjected to various excitations can be obtained and analyzed (Fujino et al. 2019). Most vibration-based diagnostic techniques for bridge assessment are based on a comparison between response of current state and reference state obtained via finite clement model or initial state of the bridge, Past studies show that performance of the seismically igolated structures can be evaluated based on the comparison of identified global parameters such as structural or modal parameters using system identification methods (Chaudhary, Abe, and Fujino 2002a; Derkevorkian et al. 2014; Fujino, Siringoringo, and Abe 2016; Fujino et al. 2019; Siringoringo and Fujino 2015). Most of the methods are based on the modal analysis in time-domain using piecewise linear approach or in frequency domain by spectral analysis. However, since the isolation system is expected to behave nonlinearly, characterization of the time-varying property of the structures must account for both temporal evolution of the frequency and amplitude contents of vibration. Neither time analysis nor frequency analysis method alone can fully describe these char- acteristics. In addition, locking of isolation bearing is a local phenomenon and detecting such phenomenon based on structural global parameter such as modal parameters can be challenging. ‘Therefore, it is more desirable to have a detection method directly from the analysis of the vibration signal without the need for performing a complete process of modal analysis. In this paper, we describe wavelet-based techniques for detecting the malfunction of isolation, bearing directly from seismic records of the structure. The techniques allow us to monitor the behavior of isolation bearing and detect any changes related to bearing malfunction such as locking phenom enon directly from the seismic records of the bridge without the need for structural model or a reference state, Organization of the paper is such that the condition and model of the isolated bridge having malfunctioned or locked bearing is firstly described by an analytical model. Next, the paper describes the theoretical background on methodologies for analyses of the time-varying structural system by continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Numerical simulations by MDOF lumped-mass system and three-dimensional finite clement model of multi span continuous bridge with numerous scenatios of the locked beating are presented, Finally, we describe the application on a real case of multi-span isolated bridge using seismic records from 3-year continuous structural monitoring system, 2. Seismic-Induced Vibration of Multi-span Continuous Girder Isolated Bridge 2.1. Modeling of Seismic-induced Vibration of Multi-span Isolated Bridge Seismic response of a pile-supported base-islated bridge system is quite complex and requires some simplifying assumptions to facilitate the formulation of a mathematical model. Generally, the axial stiffness ofthe bridge deck is much larger than the shear stiffness of the isolation bearing. Therefore, the bridge deck is commonly regarded as a rigid body. Moreover, previous research works on continuous mulli-span isolation bridge have shown that predominant dynamic characteristics of the bridge can be adequately represented by several degrce-of-freedom lumped-mass systems in the longitudinal direction (Chaudhary, Abe, and Fujino 2002a). In this type of model, one degree of freedom represents the base-isolated super-structure system while the other degree of freedom represents the sub-structure such as pier or abutment. The effect of the incoherence of support motion to each bridge pier is usually neglected because the distance between piers is not very large In this study, we consider a simplified lumped-mass seismic analysis model ofthe bridge system as amulti-degree-of freedom (MDOF) nonlinear, time-variant system subjected to earthquake excitation as shown schematically in Figure. 1. The equation of motion of the system is described in Equation (1) where structural vibration is considered only on the bridge longitudinal ditection In this equation, the isolation bearing is considered to undergo significant deformation under earthquake excitation that allows it stiffness to enter the nonlinear region, while the stiffness of bridge piers is assumed to remain in the linear range. Damping force is also considered nonlinear as the consequence of hysteresisJOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @) 3 Corinna der Pert Per 2 Pers | Per (net) Pern © Figure 1. Schematic fgute of a) continuous mult-span seismically soatd bridge and () mut-dgree-ofreedom lumped mass system ofthe Bridge behavior of isolation beating. Equation of motion of a continuous mulki-span bridge modeled as an DOF nonlinear system becomes: M(0) + FCC] + (9 (0] = - MPH), oy M=ding(M,—-My.---Mpl)s (a) where Faw -a Gn) “cuil) (Cu) +Cu) ° a Gal) (Galt) 1 Ge). ER nl Kul 4) = | Kal Kal +p) ° eo Kul) 8 (nfl) + Ke) Xp aim] (Qa) In this equation, matrices M, F, and F, are the total mass, damping force and stiffness force of the bridge system, respectively, Matrix Tis a transformation matrix that relates input ground motion to the mass matrix. Vectors x, % and x are acceleration, velocity and displacement of the bridge in the longitudinal direction (.e. along bridge axis), respectively, while z(t) denotes the input veetors ground ‘excitation caused by the earthquake. The subscripts g p, and b under the mass, damping and stiffness matrices denote the girder, pier and bearing, respectively. Whereas the subscript # denotes the corresponding number of piers4 © bam sianconwco ao Fuso 2.2, Scenario of Bearing Malfunction and Its Modeling In tis study, the elastomeric typeof tolation is considered, however the same principle can be extended to other types of isolation. Figure 2 describes atypical detail of elastomeric bearing used for seismic isolation at the continuous girder bridge and its side stopper. In thelongitudinal direction, seismic force displaces the bearing allowing movement of the girder relative tothe pier. Meanwhile in the transverse ciection, displacement of elastomer is tolerated only for limited length (ie. in the order of few centimeters) and restrained by the side stopper. The side stopper is usually made of two stiffened angle or welded steel plates located om both sides of the beating. In design, a gap exists between the isolation bearing and the two sie stoppers. However, due to pounding, misalignment or poor main- tenance over the time, there are cases where the gap in one or both sides ofthe isolator is closed, and the side stopper becomes locked with the edge of the upper stel plate or the elastomer as shown in Figure 2. (Once the gap is closed, friction from the contacting surfaces prevents movement ofthe upper steel plate, and the deck becomes locked with the pier. In such condition, the sie stopper’ stifiness will engage together with the fiction force (F) resulting in a significant increas of inital stiffness of the deck-pier connection since the stiffness ofthe side stopper is larger than that of the elastomeric bearing. Asa result, the pir is fixed to and moves together with the girder. The isolation system does not function properly ‘until the seismic force is large enough to overcome the fiction force and the girder becomes unlocked {om the pier. This process i implemented in the model by changing the sllness at the pier-girder connection as shown schematically in Figure 2c and d. 3. Methodologies for Analyses of Time-Varying Structural System by Wavelet Transform ‘Wavelet analyses have been implemented in numerous studies for structural health monitoring (SHM) ‘using seismic response because of its versatility and robustness in dealing with time-varying properties of the signal and ability in detecting signal discontinuities, Numerous wavelet- based damage detection methods have been developed and implemented via numerical models or full-scale seismic ‘te stop win prs pete sore, omer Figure 2 2) Deal sesmic isolation elastomeric bearing with side stopper (8) schematic Faure of condition when side stopper locked with upperside pate, ster wih locked Bearing, and ()lustation ofthe efecto tion force de to locked bearing fon the backbone curve of perder.JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @) 5 experiments, Hera and Hou (2004) and How, Hera, and Shinde (2006), for instance, introduced a wavelet-based methodology to extract the instantaneous modal parameters to assess the structural health condition of structures subjected to base accelerations. Todorovska and ‘rifunac (2007) investigated the inter-story drifts and changes in the first frequencies of a six-story RC structure severely damaged by the 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake and found a decrease in the system frequencies which correlated well with the observed damage. Michel and Gueguen (2010) and Aguirre, Gaviria, and Montejo (2013) found a change in structural stifness and thus a decrease of the fundamental frequency can be detected from continuous wavelet analysis. In the abovementioned studies, the changes in the wavelet transform map are associated with structural damages. Using a similar logic, we would investigate the possible use of wavelet transform to detect changes related to bearing malfunction such as locking phenomenon directly from seismic records of the structure ‘There are two types of wavelet transforms implemented in this study: CWT and DWT. The CWT is a linear transformation that decomposes an arbitrary signal x(t) through basis functions; dations and translations of a mother wavelet y() through convolution of the signal and the scaled/shifted mother wavelet, such that: w(ao)-4 f sow (Sa @ In Equation 3, W(a,6) is the wavelet coefficient that represents a measure of the similarity between the dilated shifted mother wavelet and the signal at time t and scale a. The scale a represents dilatation that is inversely proportional to frequency and contains the periodic or harmonic nature of the signal. Parameter b indicates the time shifting and * denotes the complex conjugation. The factor V2 the term e~F(*©" becomes negligible, and the approximate version of the modified Moret wavelet ean be expressed as: 1 ste vio = (3) vh ‘The dilated version of the Fourier transform of the modified Morlet wavelet becomes: Fly(1)) = Pate 6 Equation (6) shows that the relation between scale a and frequency fis given by f/a thats the localized. Fourier frequency obtained when F[y(t)] reached the maximum, The time and frequency resolution of wavelet at frequency f, can be determined by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Additionally, the end effects that can significantly influence the quality of wavelet coefficient are estimated by setting the time interval At ~ gE where the value off is taken as 4 (Yan, Miyamoto, and Brihwiler 2006) 3.1. Extraction of Wavelet Ridge and Instantaneous Frequency ‘One of the most widely used properties of CWT is the ridge and skeleton, ‘The ridge of the wavelet transform is related ¢o the instantaneous frequency (IE) of the signal. To provide definition and© © bam simcowwco ano Fuso derivation of wavelet ridges, consider Equation (3) of the CWT represented as the scalar product (Fchamitchian and Torrésani 1990) wia.b) elPO-Hy gy, o in which A and ¢ are the envelope and instantaneous phase of the asymptotic signal x(t) and wavelet, (0) respectively. Note that as pointed out by Tchamitchian and Torrésani (1990) and Staszewski and Wallace (2014), the essential contribution to Equation (8) is provided by a set of stationary points t= t, of the function: (4,10 = 4400) 446 ® wihere the sationery points can be deteiined frm the equation: (aH) = 46,2) o ‘The stationary point (isthe set of points in time-scale (a,b) domain for which the ¢, (a,b) is equal to b. ‘The curve that is a function of b (eg. a = ffb)) is a ridge of the wavelet transform, ‘The ridge of wavelet transform can be interpreted as the location where the major energy of vibration response is localized among the distributed energy density under over-the-time-scale plane (a,b). Therefore, the ridge can be considered as the governing or dominating vibration characteristics ata specific time instant, One can obtain the ridge of wavelet from time-scale plane (a,b) by employing amplitude-based or phase-based algorithms. In this paper, the amplitude-based ridge extraction is employed. The ridge is obtained by solving the optimization problem of finding the local maxima of ‘wavelet transform magnitude along the scale axis for individual time. Results of the wavelet ridge are considered as the IF of the signal and utilized to trace time-varying characteristics of the response 3.2. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) Contrary to CWT whose coeflicients are calculated at scale values that vary continuously and resulting in a highly redundant representation, the DWT analysis decomposes the signal into two components, namely, the approximation (A) and detail (D) components. The signal decomposition is performed through two complementary low- and high-pass fillers in a dyadic manner. The approximations contain high-scale (low-frequency) components of the signal, while the details contain the low-scale (high-frequency) components. At each step of decomposition, the approximation A, in level i can be further decomposed into A,,, and D,,, in level i+ 1 at each such that the original signal x(t) can be expressed as (0 = Ai + OD, (10) Because of the nature of the detail components that contain the low-scale (high-frequency) compo- nents of the decomposed signal, they are often used to detect irregularity and discontinuity associated ‘with the change in signal characteristic, In the case of seismic response of the isolated structure, the signal discontinuity is expected when a seismic response of the isolator enters the nonlinear range. Signal discontinuity associated with yielding behavior can be detected from detailed components obtained via DWT as stated in the previous studies (Aguitre, Gavitia, and Montejo 2013; Pan and Lee 2002). ‘The same logic can be applied for detecting signal discontinuity associated with the yielding of isolation layer in a movable (functioning) bearing or the absence of yielding in the case of a locking or ‘malfunction isolator bearing. The mechanisms behind this phenomenon can be explained as follows.JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @ 7 ‘One can rewrite the equation of motion described in Equation (1) by assuming an undamped case for simplification. Using the first row of the matrix, the girder acceleration (¢)is rewritten as: Da then 22) ay Similarly, acceleration of the ith pier (qp,) can be expressed using the corresponding (i + 1)th row of Equation (1) as yp = Sys = — Wha my — 5p) + Ws (2) ‘The quantities wi, Wp, and wy are the circular frequency of the bearing-girder system, the bearing pier system and the pier system, respectively, and they are defined, respectively, as wig = SEs and oy) = EE Equation (11) shows hat ‘girder acceleration depends on the circular frequency of the bearing- girder system and the relative displacement between gitder and piers. Whereas from Equation (12), fone can see thatthe pier accelerations are a function of eircular frequency ofthe bearing pier eystem, relative displacement between girder and pier, circular frequency of pir system, and displacement of the pier itself Note that both the circular frequency of the bearing-gitder system (yp) and the bearing-pier system (1p) vary with time and with the relative displacement between piet and girder. ‘Their values depend on the state of bearing stfiness which is bilinear. The values of circular frequency before yielding are uf,and af, where the superscript e denotes the elastic state; obtained from the initial (pre-yilding) bearing stifness. After the yielding, the values of circular frequency become wand «where the superscript y denotes the post yielding state with post-yielding bearing stiffness. Meanwhile, the a, is assumed to be constant since the stiffness and mass ofthe piers are sesumed to be constant and mich higher than the siness of isolation bearing "To understand the effect of circular frequency and bearing state on the signal acelertion, one can diferentite acceleration with time to obtain the rate of change. For girder acceleration, this becomes: ty = 2D) ean elon tgs + Oy be 3) where x, isthe relative displacement between girder and pier, defined as x = (1: ~ %), and the prime (‘denotes the differentiation with respect to x1, Similarly, one can compute the rate of change in aceleration ofthe it pier nt yy = Rey a igs — Wy + OR aay Both Equations (13) and (14) show that the rate of change in accelerations of girder and pier is 1 function of circular natural frequency that varies with time following isolation bearing condition, ‘Consequently, there would be a discontinuity of acceleration because of the abrupt changes in the wy, and wp; due to the change in the stiffness of isolation bearing from the pre-yielding to post-yielding state and vice versa, Discontinuity in acceleration response can be detected asa time-localization in the low-scale (high-frequency) components of the decomposed signal using DWT. In this study, the orthonormal wavelet from the fourth order of the Daubechies family or ‘Db4' for DWT is utilized (Daubechies 1992). The ‘Db4’ wavelet has orthogonal compactly supported wavelet functions that allow for symmetric and exact reconstruction. The Daubechies’ wavelet family is known to have worked well in detecting a disturbance in the signal and the Db4 wavelet was found to be useful in detecting signal discontinuity in its first derivative. ‘The objective of using wavelet transforms in this study is twofold. The CWT is employed to detect shifts in the vibration frequency of seismic responses using IF extracted from the ridges of the CWT time-frequency map. Meanwhile, the detail component (D,) obtained from DWT of acceleration is8 © bam sianconNco AND. FUsINO utilized to detect irregularities in the high frequency associated with the change in stiffness character- istics of isolation bearing. By combining and comparing the results of CWT and DWT methods, therefore, one expects to obtain information on both frequency variation and the time of occurrence of the locking or sliding of the isolation bearing from the recorded seismic response. 3.3. Characterization of Isolator Bearing Condition by K-means Clustering Classification Results of identification, namely, the IF of CWT and the detail component of DWT inherently contain statistical variations. This is quite common especially when implemented dizectly to seismic records that inevitably contain some measurement noise, To obtain a meaningful decision on the bearing condition, the results are further analyzed using a statistical approach by comparing the extracted features using the K-means clustering classification technique (Arthur and Vasslvitekii 2007; Chawla and Aristides 2013). The k-means clustering algorithm performs a partition of data space into clusters, Each cluster is represented by an object, which is the centroid or the mean point, whose values are estimated in the algorithm, In this study, two clusters were assigned, namely the isolator bearing with the locked condition and. ‘the normal or movable isolator bearing. The method is implemented as follows, Once the results of identification are obtained, the Euclidean metric is computed to determine the distance between the clusters using Equation (15) pia(u.v) =~ vl = SE, wy as) In this equation, U = (uy, 12... a) and V = (vi, v2... ¥p) ate the vectors of vibration features, namely the IF of CWT and the detail component of DWT of acceleration records obtained from girder and piers, As shall be seen later, the distance between the two clusters of vibration features at the peak fof seismic excitation are utilized as indictor to determine the condition of the isolator bearing quantitatively. 4, Numerical Examples by Lumped-Mass MDOF Bridge System Numerical simulation using MDOF lumped-mase of continuous multi-span base-isolated bridge is described in this section, The model consists of a continuous girder with five piers illustrated in Figure. 1. Mass of the girder and piers as well as the properties of isolator bearings are listed in Table 1, Note that since the main objective is to investigate the performance of isolation beatings, piers are assumed to be ‘undamaged and behave linearly throughout the entire excitation. The input ground acceleration motion ‘used in the following numerical analyses is the 1995 Kobe earthquake Takatori Station east-west compo- nent, The ground motion contains 4095 data points at sampling frequency 100 Hz and the peak ground “Table 1. Structural properties used in lamped-mass MDOF isolated bridge sptem Sructual Properties as of Girder on) 1000 Nas of Pier ton) 10 Stes of Pe fn tn) e000 Bearing Properes Inia sites toni) 2000 Secondary ifs fon) 00 ‘eld Force ton! 430 Yet Displacement) ons Stiles of Side topper nial sifhes onl) 20000 Secondary tifes (trv) ‘eld Force ton)JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @ 9 acceleration is 603.2 cm/s" at 2:83 s. The step-by-step integration of the Wilson-O method is used to ‘compute the output acceleration response for a given input ground motion, Bilinear hysteresis behavior of igolation bearing is modeled by Masing’s rules (Masing 1926). ‘The Masing’s rule is also employed in nonlinear computation analysis in conjunction with the backbone curve to obtain the response of the structure In the numerical model, all piers are assumed to have the same dimension, materials, and foundation condition. Therefore, they all have equal stiffness. The pier stiffness accounts for the stiffness of the pier structure and foundation. All isolation bearings are assumed to have the same bilinear hysteresis behavior. To simulate the cate of locked bearing, one or more bearings is assumed to be locked while the other piers are movable. This condition is achieved by assigning stiffness of side stopper as the initial stiffness instead of the original initial stiffness of the isolator as illustrated in Figure 2c and d 4.1. Observation from Extracted Wavelet Ridge and Instantaneous Frequency of Continuous Wavelet Transform Results from two case studies: single locked bearing at pier P3 and multiple locked bearings at pier P2 and P4 are described in this section, In the first case, a single locking of isolator bearing is assumed for ‘the middle pier (P3) while other bearings remain functioning, Figure 3 shows the results of simulation of the MDOF system with the scenatio explained above. The figure describes the time frequency map of the wavelet transform of accelerations and the IF extracted from the ridges of the time-frequency map by employing the procedure above. The figure shows that the girder acceleration is dominated by 1 single low-frequency response at 0.75 Hz, which corresponds to the girder mode, ‘The piers zg E4 Bu a0 i eT a | se Tas Tas = zy Ba] ey B i 2) m0 a 02 30 Time(s) Time(s) i Pe Ace q 10} a Ace(nis) E 0 2 9 40 Time(s) Time(s) 5 5 | = 2] 2 ‘| g a ¢ 0 2 0 4 % 10 2 90 Time () Freq(z) 7" Time(s) Figure 3 Result of simulation of MDOF system with one lacked bearing. Acceleration, time-fequency map of acceleration and fnvantaneousfequency (noted by red nes) obtened rom te digesof time-frequency map of accelerations: (9) girde acceler ‘on, (b) pier na aecleration (moveable) per no.2 acceleration (moveable) pier no. acceleration locked, per nad acceleration (moveable) and ler no. acceleraton (moveable)10 © at siancoRNo AND ¥.suANO acceleration responses have at least two dominant frequencies, namely, 0.75 Hz and between 3.20 and 3.75 Hr, The higher frequency corresponds to the pier frequency at 3.63 Hz, Based on the lime-frequency map and IF, one can see that the locked pier (P3) has a very different pattern of frequency distribution compared to other movable piers. At the movable piers (PL, 2, 4 and 5), accelerations were dominated by the higher frequency components at the time of the largest excitation between f= 2 ¢ and (= 16 s, During this time interval, the ellect of girder frequency at 0.75 Hz is negligible. This suggests that the piers are isolated from the girder at the time of peak excitation, which is expected from a functioning isolator bearing, Acceleration of the pier with a locked bearing (P3), however, shows that the dominating frequency as shown by the IF is generally around 0.75 Hz at the peak excitation and throughout the response. This indicates thatthe pier response is dominated by girder frequency, which could occur only when the pier and girder move together as in the case of fixed or non igolated pier-girder connection. Note that in the beginning of the response ( < 2 ¢) and after the peak excitation until the end of the response (t= 16-40 s), the accelerations of both locked and unlocked piers are dominated by girder frequency at 0.75 Hz, which suggests that piers and girder move together in the beginning and after the occurrence of peak excitation when the response is relatively smaller In the second example, two isolation bearings at pier P2 and pier P4 are assumed to be locked while other bearings function normally. Figure 4 shows the results of simulation, In general, time-frequency map of the girder and pier acceleration is similar to the case of single isolator locked. The time-frequency map of girder acceleration is dominated by a single low-frequency component at 0.93 Hz corresponding to the girder mode, This frequency is slightly higher than the corresponding frequency in the first case due to the stiffness increase caused by the two locked bearings, Similarly, the pier accelerations have at least two instantaneous frequencies, namely, 0.93 Hz and between 3.60 and 425 Hz. The higher frequency corresponds to the pier frequency at 4.20 Hz, Note that girder longitudinal frequency is higher in this cate than in the first case because with two locked beatings, the structure becomes stiffer. Figure 4e and 0 0 Oo sie) Te (0) Time (6) ® o ° Figure 4, Resuts of simulation of MOF system with two locked bearings. Acceleratins, time-requency map of acceleration and instantaneous frequency (need by red ines) obtained rom te ridges of ime requency map of accelerations: (a) gi acceler ‘on, (b) per no acceleration (moveable, () per no.2. acceleration Gack) (pit no. acceleration (moveable) pier no acceleration locked, and (f) pier nos. cclration (moveableJOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @_ 1 «shows thatthe locked piers (P2 and P4) have a different pattern of frequency distribution compared to the ‘movable piers. On the locked piers, single low frequency response at 0.93 Hz dominates the response, while ‘on the moveable piers, the responses were dominated by higher frequency 42 Hz at the time of largest excitation between t= 2 s and f= 16 s. Figure 4also shows that in the beginning of the response (<2 s) and after the peak excitation until the end of the response (# = 16-40 s), the accelerations of both locked and unlocked piers are dominated by the gitder frequency 0.93 Hz indicating that piers and girder move together after the occurrence of peak excitation when the responses. ‘The above results reveal that bearing condition can be inferred from observation of IF derived from the ‘wavelet transform girder and piers seismic response, For the pies with a functioning isolation beating, the acceleration is expected to shift to a higher frequency range at the time of large excitation. Whereas the pier’s acceleration dominated by low-frequency component corresponding to the girder at the time of large excitation could be an indication of a locked or malfunction bearing. The results indicate that we ean distinguish the condition of isolator bearing by comparing the time-frequency map and IF obtained directly from scismic responses recorded at the pier and girder without the need of structural analysis, 4.2. Observation of Detail Components Obtained from Discrete Wavelet Transform ‘The detail components were obtained by taking DWT of acceleration response using the Daubechies family fourth-order wavelet or ‘Db’. Several levels of detail components can be obtained from DWT, and in this example, we utilize the first level of detail component or D;. The values are normalized at ‘ach time instant (i) with the mean value (ji) and standard deviation (a) such that norm(Di) = abs|(D, ~ w/e (a8) Figure 5 exhibits time histories of first-level detail (D,) of the accelerations obtained from MDOF simulation forthe frst case of single locking isolator bearing atthe middle pier (3). In general, the D; values are larger atthe time when accelerations are large. As shown by the figure, the D; values near the peak of acceleration are larger than those near the end of excitation, In addition to that, the figure clearly shows several higher and distinct spikes between t= 5 and 10s for the D; values of pier 1, 2,4 and 5. For pier 3, however, these higher and distinet spikes do not appear at this time interval. As «explained previously in Equations (12)-(15), the higher and distinct spikes on the norm of D, are the indicator of discontinuity of acceleration response. The discontinuity is caused by abrupt changes in the wy and ap, due to the change in the bearing stiffness from the pre-yielding to post-yielding state and vice versa "Yo describe this phenomenon more clatly, uansitions ofthe state from linear to nonlinear during loading and unloading are compared with the spikes in the detail funetions. Let the state of isolator be defined as PrY for pre-yelding condition, where the stiffness of isolator isthe inital stifiness, and as ‘PoY" Figure 5. Fist evel deta component (0) obtained fom DWT of accelerations andthe lator bexring yield contin from MDOF system with single bering locked: (3) pier no. (moveable), (B) pier no (moveable! c) pier na. locke), (8) per nod (Moveable, ad fe pier no. (moveable12 © at siancoRNo AND v.suANO for the post-yielding where the stiffness of isolator is the secondary stiffness in the bilinear hysteresis curve. ‘The second row of Figure 5 shows the time history ofthe yield condition for bearings on all piers. The figure demonstrates that all bearings have reached the yield state except for the one on pier no.3. When the bearing condition jumps from elastic (Pr¥) to yield (PoY), there is a spike or an abrupt change in D, Similarly, when the state of isolator changes from PoY to Pr¥ during the unloading, there is also an abrupt change in D; ‘The figure shows clearly that the occurrence of abrupt change in D, correlates well with the change in the state of isolator, and the values of detail component D, alsa correlate well with the changes in the slope of acceleration at both the yielding and unloading. Hence, this information can be used as an indicator of isolator bearing condition. By defining the threshold values of absolute normalized D, to be 12 times the standard deviation (c}, the first-level detail component plots can be used as an indicator of yield condition and hence the associated bearing condition. ‘The premise is that at the time when a functioning elastomeric isolation bearing enters a nonlinear state during large excitation, an abrupt change in the normalized detail components (D,) could be detected. On contrary, the yielding mechanism would not be initiated when the bearing is locked, and as a result, there would not be any abrupt changes in the detailed components of DWT decomposition of the acceleration, Similar results were observed for the second example where two isolator bearings at pier P2 and pier Pa ‘were locked. In Figure 6, one can clearly see the presence of higher and distinet spikes between ¢~5 and 10 ‘on the time-histories of normalized D, of pier accelerations of the functioning (movable) isolation bearings. ‘On the other hand, no spikes exceeding the threshold value were detected from the detail components (D,) ‘of pier accelerations with locked bearings P2 and P4. From the figure, it can be seen that whenever bearing condition changes from elastic to yielding, higher spikes exceeding the threshold value appear on the normalized D,. Additionally, the timing of yielding and unloading stated inthe figure of yield condition can be detected from the spikes on the normalized detail components (D,) as shown by the second row of figures in Figure 6 ‘The above results demonstrate that although the DWT method cannot give information on the frequency characteristics of the structure, itis useful in detecting the change in isolator condition when yielding and unloading occurs. Hence, the observation of detail components from DWT method can be ‘used as a complementary to the results of IF obtained from the time-frequency map of the CWT coeicients. Combination of the results from both methods provides a more accurate indicator of isolator bearing condition 4.3. Characterization of Isolation Bearing Condition Using k-means Clustering ‘The above examples show that the condition of bearings can be inferred directly from the results of IF of CWT and details component of DWT. Two procedures based on k-means clustering of IF and detail ‘component are explained in this section, First, based on the pattern of IF of piers and girders, one can pm fr fae] Figure 6, Fist evel deta components (0) obtained fom DWT of accelerations andthe lator Bening yield contin from MDOF system with wo bearings locked: apie no. (moveable) pier no2.lcke) (pier ne. (moveable) pier m0. (locke, and (e) pier 905. moveable,JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @)_13 categorize them into two clusters, the normal or movable bearing and locked bearing. In the fist category, the instantaneous frequencies at the peak of acceleration ate close to the pier fundamental frequency, whereas for the second category they are closer to the girders frequency. To provide a clasification of the cluster as locked or movable bearing, the distance between two clusters of fundamental frequencies is normalized with the absolute diference between the pier and girder frequency in each case obtained by the model, The normalized distance (ND) between the clusters is defined as: ND(Wa, Ua) = [—) a7 Wp We In this equation, Try and Ta are the centroids of cluster 1 and 2, respectively; whereas wp and wy are the theoretical values of pier and girder frequency, respectively. Note that the clusters can be defined by employing the procedure explained in Equation (16) lathe case of moveable beating, the ND value will be close to one since the distance between the centroids of the two clusters will approximately ‘equal to the difference between pier and girder frequency. On the other hand, the ND value will be closer to 2ez0 for the locked beating since the distance between the centroids of the two clusters is such smaller than the difference between pier and girder frequency. ‘A similar classification of the cluster can be assigned using the results of detail components obtained from DWT. The distance between the cluster of normalized D, to the threshold value is computed for the interval time of peak excitation. The ND between the cluster centroid of detail components and the threshold value is defined as: ND(U,, B) = (as) where Ty is the centroid of the cluster of identified detail components of DWI (D,) and fis the threshold value ofthe detail component. One can note from Equation (17) thatthe ND becomes postive ‘when D, exceeds the threshold value asin the case of moveable bearing Inthe ease of locked bearing, the ND value becomes negative. In addition, the ND amplitudes is a measure of how far the detail component deviates abave or below the threshold value To investigate the effectiveness of the k-means clustering method in detecting the bearing condi- tion, case studies were conducted by considering all possibilities of isolation beating conditions for Spier multi-span girder bridge. Overall, there are 32 possible scenarios including no locked bearing «ase, 1 pier with locked bearing, 2 piers, 3 piers and 4 piers with locked bearing, and finally all piers with locked beatings. To simulate a realistic measurement case, Gaussian random noise with a 1% noise-to-signal ratio of the root-mean-square (RMS) of acceleration amplitude was added to the girder and pier acceleration records prior to performing the wavelet transform, Results of cluster clasifcation using instantaneous frequencies obtained via CWT ate provided as tables in Figure 7. The identified ND values shovn in the tables are computed in Equation (17). The abscissa denotes the case with a locked pier number and the ordinate shows the ND values for each pier. The results clearly demonstrate that piers with locked bearing have smaller ND values close to zero, while those with normal (movable) bearings have higher ND values close to one. All cases with locked piers can be accurately identified based on the relative values of ND. The differences in the values for the same condition of either locked or movable are not very significant and can be attributed to the noise effect in the acceleration records. In all 32 cases, the simulated bearing condition can be accurately characterized as a normal (moveable) or as a locked one based on the comparative values of ND fiom the table Figure 8 describes the results of the classification for the first level of detail component (D;) computed using Equation (18). The threshold value of absolute normalized D, was set to be 12 times the standard deviation (6), which was found through numerical simulation, The tables show the results from all 32 possible cases of isolation bearing condition, Az shovin in the figures, the ND values1 © bm siaNconco AND v. FUN ~EEEEEE on [eae = [om] Figure 7. lication of ioator bearing condition based on k means chstering ofthe instantaneous frequencies obtained from CT of aceleravons. ND denotes the identified normalzed stance (ND values dose to ane means moveable bearing, doser fo zero means locked bearing) a Case of no locked beating and anyone pier with lacked bearing, two ples have locked bearings, {c) three pier have locked benings (fur pers or more hve locked bearing, Nat: P nthe abies cenotes the or numbe" vith locke bearing fo en lore (6 perro Pa Po Po in PP Figure 8. Clasicaon of olor beating condition based on k-means chistering ofthe fst eve detail (D1) component obtained ftom OWT of accelerations. ND denotes the identified normalzed distance (a) Case of no lacked bearing and only one per with locke bearing (b) two piers have locked earings (thee pies have locke Bearng, four piers or more have locked Bearings. Note: m the abi denates the pier number wth locked bearing, for piers with movable bearings were all classified as a positive value smaller than one, whereas the ND values for piers with locked bearings were classified as negative with an absolute value smaller than, ‘one. The tables clearly show that bearing condition either locked or movable can be classified correctly as the intended by simulation in all cases. The amplitudes of ND values may change relatively indifferent with similar bearing conditions because of the noise effect. However, by comparing the ND values ofall piers in one case, we ean clearly classify the bearing condition correctly by referring to the classification criteria mentioned in Equation (18) ‘The investigation is extended to a more realistic case using a three-dimensional finite element model of a seismically isolated multi-span continuous bridge, The objectives of the simulation are twofold: ‘one is to confirm the behavior of seismically isolated bridge with malfunction bearing scenarios and their seismic responses, and the other is to ascertain that the MDOF model explained above can beJOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @) 15 ‘used to capture the essential behavior ofthe bridge when compared with the three-dimensional finite clement model. The bridge model has four continuous spans of 32 m length and 10 m width each supported by a 10 mall pier. The bridge piers and girder are made of reinforced concrete material. All piers have the same dimension and are assumed to have equal stiffness. Details on cross-sectional dimension of the pier, girder and bent are provided in Table 1 Figure 9 illustrates the fishbone model of the bridge built using structural analysis software SAP2000 (CSI 2013). The bridge consists of three main structural components: girder, pier and bent that were all modeled by frame element, On each pier, the girder is supported by five rubber isolation bearings. The elastomeric rubber isolation bearing is modeled by a nonlinear link element that covers the nonlinear behavior of isolation bearing and allows for nonlinear analyses for seismic response computation. In the model all bearings are moveable in longitudinal and lateral directions. They all, have the same structural properties and bilinear hysteresis behavior, except for the bearings at the end. pier which were assumed to have larger sifiness. Seismic analysis was conducted using the 1995 Kobe earthquake Takatori station ground motions as the ground excitation. The half-scale of the east-west (EW) and north-south (NS) components of 1995 Takatori ground motions were applied in a direction parallel and perpendicular to the bridge axis, respectively. Similar to the previous analysis of the MDOF system, one or more isolation bearings are assumed to be locked while the other piers are movable to simulate cases of the locked bearing by assigning stiffness of side stopper as the initial stiffness instead of the original inital stiffness ofthe isolator. Details on structural information and isolation bearings are listed in Table 2 In the analyses, its assumed that accelerations from the girder and pier caps are recorded and used to evaluate isolation bearing conditions. Since the bridge girder is a continuous rigid body that has larger lateral stiffness than the lateral stiffness of isolator bearing, the girder longitudinal accelerations Table 2 Structural properties used in lumped-mass MOOF lated bridge system, Sacral Hement ee i) Moment of ert ly ‘ede 580 14.48, 226,53) er 500 (957,100, 1215) Bent 14a [01401150282] Bearing properties Mid per nd Pier Ina stitfess (Nin) 3000 ‘000 Post ye siffess ato 02 02 ‘le srength (0) ans ans Urimate aplacement ans Stiles of Sie Stopper Intl stiffness tor) 0000 Post yi stesso 02 ele force ton) 15000 130m (@32.5m) a Figure 9. Finite element model of connuous mul-span lated bridge used in the case study16 © at siancoRNo AND ¥.suANO are equal along the bridge, thus only acceleration from one point in the center of the girder is used for the analysis. Meanwhile for the piers, accelerations at the pier cap in the bridge axis (longitudinal) direction are utilized. 5.1. Extracted Wavelet Ridge and Instantaneous Frequency of the Finite Element Results [As the first case, all bearings are assumed to function properly. This means that during the peak excitation, all isolators have reached the nonlinear stage, This case is investigated to provide a reference for the other case of the locked bearing. Figure 10 shows the characteristics of time- histories accelerations, the time-frequency map and corresponding IF. The largest peak in the time- frequency map occurs during the peak excitation period t= 2-8 ¢, At this time, the girder response is dominated by a single low-frequency response at 0.98 Hz, which corresponds to the girder long- itudinal mode. Based on the IF, itis confirmed that the single-frequency girder longitudinal mode remains the dominating frequency until the end of excitation. Meanwhile all piers accelerations have the same characteristics. One can clearly see nonstationary characteristics of the acceleration time history which can be verified by the time-frequency map and IF. At the beginning of the response, after the arrival or the secondary wave, the responses were characterized by higher instantaneous frequen- cies, between 4.76 Hz and 5.3 Hz. The frequency range of 4.76-5.3 Hz corresponds to the pier longitudinal frequency at 5.25 Hz, Note that at the time interval ¢ = 2-5 s, which corresponds to the duration of peak excitation, the IF drops from 5.14 Hz to 4.74 Hz before increasing further to 5.20 Hz at f= 10 s. After the period of peak excitation, the IF drops much lower than 0.98 Hz until the end of vibration, The results demonstrate that in a moveable bearing, the pier and girder accelerations during the peak excitation were dominated by their own respective frequency suggesting the uncoupled 1 E Sifffprmm mnt Eo 84 84 ‘ "ogo 0 at ao 0 10 20 2 40 i Tai = z4 zy a Fy an onan 4 9 ana a Time(s) Time(s) Po paatne | 2s rh Eo £9 is ig * > 0m 0 «0 “> wm w 4 Time 3) Time (s) Froq(H2) 02D © Ti (5) © ‘Tene (6) 10 2 00 40 ‘Time (3) Figure 10. Resuks of frite element simulation forall piers with moveable Bearings; accelerations, tme-tequency map of aceleration and istantaneous frequency (noted by red lines) obtained fom the ridges of time-equency map: (a) geder ‘acceleration, fb) pier no. acceleration (moveable (} pier no 2 acceleration (moveable! (3) pier no. acceleration (moveable {et pier nat acceleration moveable) and pier 905, aceleration moveableJOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @)_17 separate systems. In this condition, the piers are isolated from the girder and the high-frequency content of the pier is not transferred to the girder, which is expected from a functioning isolation bearing In the second simulation, we consider the case of single locked bearing at the middle pier (P3) Figure 11 reveals the acceleration time histories, time-frequency map and the IF of girder and all piers. Ic is evident from the figure that the accelerations of all moveable piers are dominated by two frequency components: the frequency associated with pier main frequency during the peak excitation (t= 2-15 5) and the girder frequency at the end of the response. Meanwhile, acceleration of the pier with locked bearing (P3) is mainly dominated by the girder frequency at around 1.0 Hz. One can ‘observe the similarity of time-frequency characteristics of accelerations on the girder and the pier with locked bearing. The similarity indicates that both girder and pier move together as a coupled system. "The same phenomenon was observed when single locked bearing occurs at a different pier, which is not shown here because of space limitation ‘The third case simulates a case of multiple locked bearings at pier P2 and P4, The acceleration time histories, time-frequency map and the IF of girder and all piers are shown in Figure 12. ‘The figure shows that the characteristics of the time-frequency map of the piers with locked bearing are very similar to that ofthe girder. During the peak acceleration at the time f = 2.5-10 s, the main frequency content of these pier accelerations is 1.1 Hz which is the frequency of the girder’s longitudinal mode. ‘Note that this frequency is slightly higher than the corresponding frequency in the first two cases due to the stiffness increase caused by the twa locked bearings, This trend continues until the end of excitation indicating that girder with pier P2 and girder with PA move together at coupled system. On contrary, the piers with movable bearings were characterized by high-frequency component at 4.76—- 5.20 Hz at the peak of excitation between t = 2.5 and 10 s, This is the time when the girder becomes a 0 | oe ey $4 84 Moo 00a as “mmo” “ona” * hal ror £4 a5 Time 5) Time (s) 10 20 a0 10 2 8 40 oy Tim (5) ° Tene (6) ime (3) Figure 1. Rests of fit element simulation: accelerations, timesfequency map of acceleration and instantaneous frequency (noted by ced lines) obtained fom the ges of timettequeney map of acceleration.) geder acceleration, () pe? no? acceleration (moveable), (@) pier no2. acceleration (moveable) 2) pier no. acceleration Jock} (e) pier no, acceleration (roveale, and per noS acceleration (moveable18 © at siancoRnco AND v.suANO : ’ $4 4 "ogo oan 10 20 00 i i 0 2 ao 1 10 20 304. o Tine(s) *, Time(s) pete eel ae ae F EA he 4 a3) 24 a Caen eS eS ay g4 4 3 4 rz) a4 0 0 mo wm 40 % 0 2 wD 0 0 Pare Sake oa ake a Figure 12. Results of finite element simulation: accelerations, timesfequency map of acceleration and instantaneous frequency (noted by eed lines) obrained fom the ges of ime-trequeney map of accelerations: () gee” acceleration, (| per No. 2ccelration (moveable, (ler n.2. acceleration locked) (perro. acceleration (moveable) per nod. aceeration (locke 3nd pier nas. acelertion moveable isolated from the piers and the isolation bearings start to function, Like in the previous cases, the IF then drops to the girder frequency 1.1 Hz after the peak excitation until the end of vibration suggesting that the girder and piers move together as in a non-isolated system at the small amplitude of vibration, ‘Note that the results of finite clement simulations and the characteristics of their time-frequency maps are consistent with the previous results from the lumped mass simulation, Time-frequency response characteristics of the moveable and locked bearings are consistent with the MDOF lumped ‘mass simulation suggesting that the behavior of the bridge can be modeled adequately by the lumped mass system, Therefore, the behavior of isolation bearing can be observed directly from the IF evolution of the acceleration via the time-frequency map of CWT 5.2. Observation of Detail Components Obtained from Discrete Wavelet Transform of the Finite Element Results “The first level of detail components was computed via DWT of accelerations using the Daubechies fourth-order wavelet or ‘Dba’. The D, values were normalized at each time instant by the normalization procedure described in Equation (16). The time histories of absolute values of the normalized detail ‘components are plotted for the three cates and compared with the time history ofthe yield condition for ‘bearings on all pies. In the first case of all bearings assumed to function properly, Figure 13 shows that the time histories of D; are characterized by distinct and higher spikes atthe time interval of peak accelerations. Fr all piers, the values of absolute normalized D; exceed the threshold (12 times the standard deviation (o)). The second row of the figure illustrates the transitions of the isolator state from linear to nonlinear during loading and unloading processes. Compared to the spikes in the detail functions, the transition state figure clearly demonstrates that all bearings have reached the yield state.JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING @) 19 tT cI c i i Figure 13. Fst level detail components (0) obtained fom DIT of aceerations an the soltor Bearing yi condtion frm rte ‘element mode wth all moveable beating (2) pier not (b) pier no. (per no3, (pet no, and per no. [At the interval time of peak excitation, the bearing condition changes from elastic (Pr¥) to yield (PoY), which were followed by the abrupt changes in the acceleration responses as signified by the higher spikes in the D; time histories Im the second case (Figure 14), the first level detail components (D;) of all piers contain higher values exceeding the threshold value at the time interval t = 2-5 s except for pier P3 in the middle that has a locked bearing. Comparison between the D; time histories and the transitional state of isolator plot reveals a remarkable correlation between the occurrence of these higher D, spikes and the transitional state of isolation bearing from clastic (Pr¥) to yield (Po¥) and vice versa Similar results were observed for the third case where two locked isolation bearings at pier P2 and pier P4 (Figure 15). One can clearly see the presence of higher and distinct spikes between t= 2.and 5 on the time histories of normalized detail components (D;) ofthe functioning (movable) isolator bearings at pier PL, P3 and P5. On the other hand, no spikes exceeding the threshold value were detected from the D, of pier accelerations with locked bearings P2 and P4. The figures clearly demonstrate that whenever bearing condition changes from elastic to yielding, the spikes exceeding threshold values appear on the normalized Dy, The results are consistent with the observation from the D; component of the MDOF system explained above. ‘The results have demonstrated that discontinuity in the acceleration responses caused by the change {in the isolation state at the time of yielding can be detected effectively by the fit level of detail components obtained from DWT. The results from finite clement simulation have confirmed similar remarkable detection ability observed in the MDOF simulation by the lumped-mass system. The yielding {information contained in the D; amplitudes provides a good indicator of bearing condition from Figure 14 Fst level detail components (0) obtained fom DWT of accelerations andthe slater bearing yield condition frm rte ‘erent model fr (a) pier no. acceleration (moveable, () pier no 2 acceleration [movedble) (pier 0.3, acceleration lke), (a) pierno4. acceleration (moveable and (per ne. acceleration (moveable)20 @ bm staNGORINGO ANDY FUANO t (ll 114 + . ht ail Il L 4 Figure 15, Fst level detail components 0) obtained from DWT of aceerations andthe islto bearing yi condition frm rite clement macel fr a pit no. acceleration (moveable, (8) pier no2- acceleration locked (per no acceleration (moveable, (dh pre no. acceleration lekel, and fe) pier n0S acceleration (moveable hich one can infer the possible occurrence of the locked bearing, Therefore, one can infer the bearing condition from given D; values at the time of peak excitation and compare their amplitudes with the threshold value to make a reasonable jadgment and informed decision on the bearing condition, 5.3. Implementation of k-means Clustering for Characterization of Isolation Bearing Condition from Finite Element Simulation To investigate more comprehensively the effectiveness and accuracy of detection using CWT and DWT results, the results of simulations by finite element models were summarized in a form of classification of the bearing condition using the k-means clustering method. The method was implemented to the CWT and DWT results following the same procedure described in the previous section for the MDOF simulation. All possible 32 cases of isolation bearing conditions and combinations were investigated, and for each case, a separate finite clement model of the bridge was constructed, The 32 finite element models include all possible combinations of bearing scenarios, namely all functioning bearing, locked bearing at one pier, locked bearings at two piers, three and four piers and locked bearings at all five piers. In all cases, the input excitation and components of the finite element model were the same except for the pier with simulated locked beating. The girder and pier acceleration records were added with random noise with a 19 noise to-signal ralio of the RMS of acceleration amplitude before taking the wavelet transform (o simulate measurement noise. For each case, longitudinal accelerations from six locations were used in the analysis, namely, one node in the center of the girder and five nodes at the respective pier cap, Relationship between the centroids of IF values and the locked bearing model shown in Figure 2 can be explained as follows. A locked bearing is condition where the friction between side stopper and steel plate above the isolator prevents the isolator to move freely. This condition is modeled by assigning higher initial stiffness that is of the side stopper instead of the original inital stifiness ofthe clastomeric bearing in the backbone curve of the isolator as illustrated in Figure 2c and d. This higher initial silness is aributed to the effect of friction between side stopper and steel plate above the isolator. As the consequence ofthe locked bearing condition, the frequency contents of girder and pier accelerations are dominated by a single low frequency component that corresponds to girder mode ‘This frequency is higher than the frequency of the girder in the case of normal (anlocked) bearing because of higher intial stifness. The physical condition of locked and normal (unlocked) bearing can be inferred from the ND values denoted in Equation (17). The centroids of IF cluster data represent the dominant IF of the girder and the dominant IF of the piers acceleration, The values of Uy and Ta are closer to the girder’ frequency and pier’s frequency, respectively, when the isolator functionsJOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING G21 Figure 16. Clssfcation of isolator bearing condition forthe FE simulations based on kmeons clsteing method of the instantaneous frequencies obained fom CWT of aceleratons. ND denote the dented normalized gstance (ND vals closer to one means maveabe bearing lose to 20 means laced bearing) a) Case of no locked bearing and only one pet wih locked bearing) te pers havelocked bearings, thee pers have locked bearing, fur pers or more have lacked bearings, Note: i the as abel denotes the per number with lockea beating normally. On the other hand, the values of Uz and Uz become closer to each other when the bearing is locked because the girder and pier move together as a coupled system, Figure 16 exhibits the results of cluster classification Using instantaneous frequencies obtained via CWT for the 32 cases of finite element models. The abscissa in each case describes the pier number with locked bearing and the ordinate describes the identified ND values that are computed in Equation (17). It is evident from the results that piers with locked bearing can be identified based on ND values closer to zero, while piers with normal (movable) bearings ‘were identified with ND values close to one, The method accurately classifis all cases of the pier with locked bearing from the relative values of ND. Similar to the case studies by the MDOF system, using the comparative values of ND one can accurately characterize the simulated bearing condition, There were some differences in the ND values for the same bearing condition, which can be attributed to the noise effect in the acceleration records. The differences, however, do not significantly change the classification, since the comparative values of ND in one case still ‘unmistakably provide an indicator on the bearing condition of that pier. ‘A similar procedure is implemented for DWT as explained in Equation (18). This time, the cluster of the identified first level detail components (D1) is obtained from DWT of pier acceleration. By emeans cluster algorithm, the centroids of the first level detail components noted asU; is defined, as. well as the threshold value of the detail component, (and the ND(U, 0) is computed. The physical interpretation of this index is explained in Equations (11)-(14). For the case of normal (unlocked) bearing, the D1 will have higher spikes in the interval of peak acceleration. This will result in higher value of the centroid of the firs level detail components (UZ). This will result in higher value of the centroid of the first level detail components (U7), and positive numerator in Equation (18) and the ND value. On the other hand, when the bearing is locked, there will be no high D1 spikes as explained in Equations (11)~(14), As the result, the centroid of the first level detail components (U7) will be smaller and closer to the threshold value ofthe detail component U. In this case, the numerator in Equation (48) and ND value will become negative. igure 17 shows the classification results from all 32 possible cases of bearing condition obtained from the first level detail components (D,), The tables list the ND values with respect to the threshold values set to_be 12 times the standard deviation (o). The figure clearly shows that ND values for piers with movable bearings were all classified as positive values smaller than one, Whereas, the piers with locked bearings ‘were classified as negative with an absolute value smaller than one, Similar patterns were observed and