APPLICATION OF CONTACT ELEMENT METHOD FOR LOCAL LUMPED MASS TO COLLISION SIMULATION BETWEEN GIRDER AND ABUTMENT OF BRIDGES

In recent years, some kinds of contact element methods for simulating collision issues have been widely used in the field of bridge collisions. One of them is the Lumped Parameters Contact Element Method (LPCEM), which simplifies a collision object to be two particles respectively. Consequently, the collision stress wave propagation phenomenon cannot be exhibited. Another one is the Watanabe & Kawashima Contact Element Method (WKCEM), whose contact stiffness is the virtual stiffness made for the accurate simulation of collision processes, but has no physical meaning. For the collision simulation between the girder and abutment of girder bridges, a new method, i.e. the Contact Element Method of Local Lumped Mass (CEMLLM), was put forward and introduced first. Then its applications in the collision simulation between the girder and abutment of girder bridges were discussed in details, and its rationality was verified by an experiment. At last the CEMLLM was compared with the other two methods to illustrate its advantages in the collision simulation between the girder and abutment.