Ultimate design capacity of bridge abutments
Under the large forces transmitted by a bridge structure during an earthquake, a bridge abutment may undergo significant displacements deriving from the mobilisation of both the soil and the structural strength. In some cases a controlled yielding of the abutment may produce favourable effects, dissipating seismic energy and limiting the seismic actions into the superstructure. In fact, the bridge design could explicitly account for dissipative features of the soil-abutment system, allowing a certain amount of irreversible displacements compatible with a prescribed performance level.